A Visit to Marietta

The Marietta Times, May 19, 1870

From the Jackson Standard, D. Mackley, Editor.

The convention met at ten o'clock and its proceedings were conducted in an orderly, business-like manner. The official proceedings will be found in another column.

At three o'clock, buggies arrived to take us on a little excursion. We first visited Marietta College. President Andrews is a very pleasant gentleman, and was very kind in taking us through the College buildings. The library is large and well selected. The rooms we visited contained some thirty-three thousand volumes. President Andrews told me that he is always anxious to receive donations of old books, old magazines. He said many of these are destroyed every year to get them out of the way, when they might be of much use as additions to the College library.

The cabinet of minerals is very interesting. So are the specimens of insects, &c. One thing interested me very much. This was the fragment of the meteor which fell in Morgan County [Muskingum County], May 1, 1860. This fragment weights 110 lbs. It is of a dark color and looks a good deal like a chunk of pig-iron.

I was at Berlin when this meteor passed through a small portion of our atmosphere. It was at midday, and it looked nearly as large and bright as the sun. I wrote a short account of it for the Cincinnati Commercial. Prof. Evans, then of Marietta College, seeing the account, corresponded with me, and he used by account of what I had seen in a pamphlet he afterwards wrote. Prof. Evans held that the main meteor was one-third of a mile in diameter and moved at the rate of, I think, seventeen miles per second.

The theory of Prof. Evans was that the meteor merely glanced through a small space of the earth's atmosphere and then moved off into space. The intense heat caused by friction in the atmosphere caused the outer surface to melt and scale off the main body. These fragments which fell to the earth are the broken pieces of these scales.

There are now three large College buildings, the third one being designed for the library exclusively. It is not yet finished.

From the College we went to the Children's Home. This is located on the east side of the Muskingum River, a mile or more above its mouth. It consists of over a hundred acres of land. The building was a farm house and is not fully adapted to the purpose for which it is now used. But the house and grounds are fine.

We had a good drink of Lemonade, when the children gave us apples, and then we visited the different rooms. In the first room were five little children, from two to five years of age. I noticed one little sick child sitting on its low seat, which warmed my deepest sympathies. It was pale and emaciated, its little hands appearing almost transparent. The development of its features showed a precocity almost startling. It was born in the Infirmary, and the ladies and gentlemen in charge informed us that they believed that its life had only been preserved thus far in consequence of the extreme care that had been taken of it. When I looked upon this patient, innocent, suffering child, born in the Infirmary, I was most forcibly reminded of Dickens' child of the Marshalsea - Little Dorrit.

We visited another room where there were some half dozen children of a larger size. Then we visited the school room. It was rather close and quite warm. A little boy was requested by one of the ladies in charge to sing. He sang an appropriate verse and was joined in the chorus by all the children. A little negro girl was then requested to sing a verse, and all the children joined in the chorus with her. One little negro boy was so sleepy that I thought evry minute that he would fall prostrate upon the floor. A little white boy was in nearly the same condition.

These children were all clean and neatly dressed. Many of them were as fine and intelligent looking children as you would see anywhere. There were fifty-six of them, and they are being sent two or three every day to the country, as good homes can be procured for them, and others are coming in daily. This is an institution organized under a general law of the State, but it is said to be the only one yet organized under this law. Those in charge appear to be thoroughly interested in the work they are engaged in, and they regard it not so much as a duty for which they are paid, as a Christian duty for which they expect a higher reward hereafter. This institution reflects great honor upon the State of Ohio for passing such a law, and upon the people of Washington County who have carried the law into practical operation. It is a great advance in the direction of a higher and nobler Christian civilization.

As we were leaving, these little waifs all came out, some three or four of them being of the lately despised African race. They clapped their little hands and cheered us. May God bless them.

As we returned to the city, we crossed the bridge and drove through Harmar and then back to the hotel. Our meeting at night was pleasant and agreeable. Too much smoking, but no drunkenness.

I had resolved to start home on Friday morning, but several citizens urged me to go out to Cow Run. My friend Stimson was particularly solicitous that I should go, and finally I consented.

We started at seven o'clock in buggies and express wagons and had nine miles to go. We went over the hills, a pretty rough country. Judge Chamberlain took me and Dumble of the Marietta Register, Chapman of the Pomeroy Telegraph, and McFarland of the Portsmouth Tribune. We arrived at Cow Run at ten o'clock. This is a small branch which empties into the Little Muskingum. The bottom is narrow, and steep hills arise on both sides. The derricks occupy a distance of half a mile up the bottom, and then up the little hollows on the right haand side as you go up the little creel. Then they are scattered up the steep hill on the right, to its very summit. Where there is a narrow branch, or level space on the steep hillside, there a derrick towers up. But they are the most numerous on the little bottom of Cow Run. They are thick as the chimneys in a closely built town. 

Did you ever see one of these derricks? Four sills, some twenty feet long, are framed together and made level. A piece of hewn timber, eight inches square and fifty feel long, is set upon each corner of this frame, and the tops are drawn in until they approach within eight feet of each other. They are then fastened by cross pieces and braces. In the center at the top is a pulley, over which a rope passes. One end is fastened to the top of the drill, and the other passes around a shaft. Upon this shaft is a drum. Around this drum passes a belt. The belt passes around another drum at the engine, and thus the rope is wound around the shaft and draws the drill up towards the pulley at the top of the derrick.

There are over one hundred derricks in view at one time. Derricks are being erected. They stand over new flowing wells. They stand over wells where the oil is being pumped up. They stand over weels which are being repaired and over abandoned wells. The wells all have names, such as "School House Well," "Eureka Well," "Grecian Bend Well," &c. A well was put down on the lot owned by the school district, and now the district has realized from it ten thousand dollars. They do not know what to do with the money. The party who bores pays the owner of the "territory" one-third of the oil as royalty, or rent.

A company over on the Little Muskingum, two miles north, forces water over one hill and to the top of another into two great tanks, and from these all the engines are supplied with fresh water. This company charges $25.00 per month to supply each engine, when it runs day and night. 

The wells now produce in the aggregate, 400 barrels crude of oil, worth eleven cents per gallon, or $4.50 per barrel. Pipes lead from the different wells to one point, and there a powerful little engine forces the oil through a pipe, over a high hill, five miles, to the Ohio River. A dial indicates the amount of pressure. When I saw it, 320 pounds to the inch was being put on. As the Ohio River must be lower than Cow run, I suggested to the engineer that a siphon might be used instead of an engine. But he said the friction of the oil in the pipe would render this impracticable.

I learned a great many interesting things about this oil business, but I fear I shall be tedious. I will, however, note a few more things about it.

The drill weighs from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds. Some have a number of wooden rods attached to them and then the rope. some have no rods, but the rope is fastened directly to the drill. These rods are thirty-six feet long and screwed together. The drill is worked the same as the pump. A cross beam is balanced in the center, and the engine at one end, and of course the other end of the beam has a corresponding motion. To this end is fastened the rope. So the drill is raised a foot or two and permitted to drop. A man keeps turning the drill, which is thus made to fall each time in a differen tposition, and thus the hole is made round. By this turning, a screw is all the time being operated at the upper end of the rope, and the drill is each time lowered, or screwed downwards, as the hole deepens.

The wells are from 200 to 1,600 feet deep. One is being drilled which is now over 1,600 feet deep, and it has cost $30,000.

Some wells will "flow," or throw up a barrel or two of oil every half hour. This may continue a month or more, when the periods will change, and the flow will be once an hour. After a month or so the period may again be changed. Sometimes the oil will be thrown fifty feel above the top of the derrick. Gas is almost constantly coming up. It can be seen like the glimmering of heat on a very warm day. This gas has a most pungent and disagreeable smell.

The oil does not look like I supposed it did. It is very thin and fluid and of a sky-blue-slate color. It is quite cold. It is very inflammable, and frequently the gas becomes ignited and flashes to the oil. Then there is an explosion, and the derricks, tank &c., are gone beyond redemption, as they are always thoroughly saturated with oil. It is too dangerous a place to have drunken men, and no one is permitted to sell whisky there.

The surface of the water in Cow Run is covered with floating oil and exhibits every color of the rainbow, as seen when light is resolved into its original elements by the prism. Sunlight has been decomposed by some unknown process in nature and stowed away deep in the bowels of the earth, perhaps millions of years before Moses was hidden in the bullrushes, or Abraham went forth to battle. And now it is brought forth, and from this long hidden light is made the rich and glorious aniline dyes, which far surpass the famous Eastner purple, and now the beautiful woman of 1870 is arrayed in silks, the colors of which far surpass the glories of the court of Solomon.

But I must let Cow Run slide.

And now a parting word to Marietta. It is a fine old place. I did not see a drunken man, nor a doggery, nor did I hear an oath sworn in the place. Of course there is vice and immorality there, and even crime. But these are rare. The people are refined. There is more aristocracy of learning than of wealth. The place is behind the age in some things. The streets are not graded, and when it is wet weather they are mud holes. 

I never saw so many trees in a city. Looking down from the top of the College buildings, one can scarcely see the houses. It looks like a dense forest. And what is more beautiful is, that the great bulk and body of these trees are maples. There are some elms and other trees, including evergreens. But then it is one great maple forest. I consider the American maple the most beautiful tree in the world. And the elm next. 

My old friend, Col. David Alban, drew a little on his imagination. He said that the whippoorwill could be heard in the heart of the city - that this lonely bird had never forsaken Marietta since it was originally settled in 1788. But he finally took that back and said that it might be on the hills back of the city where it could be heard.

I have left myself no room to speak of the many worthy men whom I met in Marietta. I will only mention one, the chairman of our evening meeting, S. S. Knowles, Esq. He is every way worthy, and I was gratified to hear that there is a strong inclination to send him to Congress. He is about the only man in Marietta who showed a decent respect to Mrs. Longley and Miss Bates when they were in the place.

 

Joseph F. Barnett

The Marietta Register, January 11, 1894

Joseph F. Barnett of Barlow, Ohio, was born in old Virginia in February, 1828, consequently he is almost sixty-six years old. He remained there until the year 1845, when he emigrated to Ohio.

He says: "In that State I followed working on a farm for a livelihood. The year previous to our departure we raised two hundred and fifty bushels of wheat, which we had to haul in wagons to market a distance of forty miles. We could not sell our wheat until we had shown a certificate or order from a white man to another white man that knew the wheat was raised by us. That was done to prevent slaves from stealing wheat from their masters and selling it to free persons. 

"When we decided to leave the State, the first thing to be done was to obtain free papers. When that was done we thought, as a matter of course, everything was all right. Our company consisted of nine persons. We were frequently stopped on our way to show our free papers. 

"We reached Parkersburg on the morning of the 27th of October, 1845. Before crossing the river to Ohio we again had to show our free papers and have our wagons searched. When we crossed the river it was almost dark and the whole crowd had but 75 cents, therefore, we were compelled to stop traveling.

"We stopped at Daniel Goss', now T. B. Hibbard's home. We then and there put up our tent of canvas. While there many persons came through curiosity to see us. We had been there but a few days when each of us was called upon to give a bond of $1000, that we would not become a township or county charge, and if we failed to comply, we would have to return to Virginia.

"We expected we would have to return. I went to Daniel Goss and told him of our predicament. He was a good old Christian and belonged to the M. E. church, to which I also belonged. Brother Goss was a good abolitionist. He said to me, 'Get in my buggy and go with me to Belpre,' which I did. Col. Jack Stone, Capt. Putnam, Francis Stone, and Mr. Browning signed our bonds. 

"We then rented a farm of Mr. Beck and went to work. We lived on Beck's farm two years and then moved close to where I now live. My father, brother and myself purchased 100 acres of land - 33-1/3 acres each - and I did not have a cent to pay thereon. I gained the confidence of good men, of whom Charles and Mark Green were my closest friends, they having helped me with a note of $500." 

Mr. Barnett, by being industrious, economical, and prompt, has accumulated quite a fortune. He is the owner of 700 acres of land where he lives in East Barlow. The improvements on his farm are good. He occupies one of the finest residences in Barlow and his barns and outbuildings are numerous. There are four dwellings on his premises. His farm is well stocked with horses and cattle, sheep and hogs. He has for many years made a specialty of the sheep business. I think I can safely say that no man, colored or white, in Barlow Township, has made and saved as much as Mr. Barnett. Still he has met with many misfortunes, and at this time he suffers intensely with a chronic ailment. He has been married three times. His last wife is still living. His first wife was a daughter of the late Ambrose Asbury, the father of five ministers of the gospel. They are all fluent speakers. I have been informed that Mr. Barnett is out of debt.

In conclusion, I will relate an incident I am reminded of by Mr. Barnett's bond business, and his mentioning the name of Sheriff Mark Green. Once upon a time a large family consisting of twelve persons, who were exceedingly poor, had been time and again ordered to leave the townships in which they lived, or give bond that they would not become a township charge. Finally they moved to Marietta, which was at the time Mr. Green was Sheriff of this county, and the painful duty of ordering them to leave or give bond devolved upon him. The Sheriff had learned what a time they had had moving from place to place, and no doubt he had compassion on them, as he was a very kind and humane man. He addressed the head of this ungodly family as follows: "Old man, I have come to order you off of the face of God's green earth."

John W. Tuttle

Letter From Robert Oliver

Gazette of the United States, July 21, 1790

From the Hampshire Gazette -

Mr. Butler -  As every information from gentlemen of veracity relative to the Ohio Company is likely to be of public utility, I send you the following extract of a letter from Col. Robert Oliver, who has lived there almost two years, not doubting but it will be agreeably received by your customers in general, and in particular those interested in said Country - the public service being my only motive. I am yours, &c. William Sizer.

Wolf[creek], May 25, 1790.

Dear Sir, 

I shall endeavor to answer your letter methodically and, in the first place, do assure you the report that we were obliged to move to the city on account of the Indians, was every part thereof false and without the least foundation. The Indians have killed one man and stole some horses, which is all the mischief they have done on the purchase since my arrival. They appear to be very friendly and to bear a great regard for the Yankies, as they call us.

I lived at the city the first winter, and in the spring took up my land at this place, and undertook with three others to build mills, which we have completed and they are of the first rate.I raised last season about 100 bushels of corn, some potatoes, turnips, &c. &c. I moved my family here last September and have lived her ever since - have not been in the last disturbed. I have caught near two barrels of fish, some suckers, perch and pike; I have taken pike here of 24 lb. They appear to be of the same kind of the pickerel in New England.

I like my situation well, my land is exceeding good. You wish to know the summer season. It would not be worthwhile to give you a detail of every day. Let it suffice to say, the summer season appears to be well calculated to nourish the growth of the fruits of the earth. The weather in summer is not warmer, as I can perceive, than in New England, but of longer duration. 

The bottom land is as heavy timbered in general as the beech and maple land in Chester. The hills are oak and hickory, the most beautiful timber for building I ever saw. The face of the earth is not covered with stones as in New England, but they appear to be in quarries and are discovered upon the sides of hills and at the sides and bottom of creeks. They are almost, or entirely, either lime or free stone. The free stone makes as good grind stones as the Nova Scotia stone and are excellent for building. We have plenty of good clay. The boards the joiners use are yellow poplar, cherry and black walnut, of which there is great plenty.

The hills are about one mile from the Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum. This is not all bottom land, part of it is what we call second bottom, and part an oak plain. The land at or near the point is flowed, I believe, once a year at least, occasioned by the water of the Ohio and Muskingum overflowing their banks, they being somewhat low. This is also the case with some part of the bottoms up the Muskingum. These bottoms will not bear wheat at present, for they are by far too rich, but the plains and hills appear to be excellent for wheat.

You request to know how many families there are at or near Marietta, but of this I am unable to inform you. There are three settlements here, one at Marietta, one down the Ohio and commences about twelve miles from Marietta and continues for near six miles. There is another at this place of about sixteen families, besides men who have not got their families and a number of single men. This settlement is about fourteen miles by land, but twenty-four by water, from Marietta. 

Provisions the last summer were very plenty. Flour sold at two dollars per hundred weight, bacon seven pence and eight pence per pound, whiskey three shillings and sixpence and four shillings per gallon, and almost every other necessary of life was sold at as low a rate. But provisions are now scarce and high. A vast quantity of flour is gone down to New Orleans (at the mouth of the Mississippi), but although provisions are scarce I believe we shall make a rub of it, and with a common blessing shall raise this year double the quantity of grain necessary for the support of the people on the ground. 

I must close my letter by giving you my real judgment (and it is founded partly on reason and partly on experience) on the difference between supporting a family here and with you. Take farms of a middling quality and equal improvements, I can raise three pounds of pork, two of beef, two of wool, two yards of common broad cloth, two pounds of butter, two and a half of bread, and two of all sorts of vegetables, as easy as you can one in New England. Believe me, Sir, I do not exaggerate.

.  

An Ordinance Regulating the Burying Ground in Marietta

The Marietta Gazette, July 2, 1837

Section 1. Be it ordained by the Town Council of the Town of Marietta, That the Town Council shall cause to be re-surveyed and laid out as far as practicable, the Burying lots in the Mound Burying Ground, in such manner as shall most nearly conform to the original survey of the lots, and make such improvements as to save all the ground that can consistently with economy and convenience be occupied for graves. It shall be the duty of the Surveyor to cause to be marked the lines of all the lots, by stakes or trenches, and to record a plot of the same in his book of town surveys, and also to furnish the sexton with a copy of the same.

Section 2. Be it further ordained, That there shall be appointed by the Town Council annually, a Sexton, whose duty it shall be to take charge of the Burying Ground under the direction of the Town Council, and superintend the same, record the selections of burying lots taken up by families, and the repository of individuals; attend and assist at funerals, and locate the graves of individuals and strangers so as not to interfere with the family burying lots. He shall cause all graves to be dug as near each other as possible without opening the previously dug graves; shall place the head of all graves on the head line of the lots, so as to observe an uniformity in all the lines of graves, and shall cause them to be dug five feet in depth, and shall have charge of all the funeral apparatus belonging to the Town; and it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to enter upon the burying ground to dig a grave or graves, until it shall have been previously located by the Sexton (under the penalty of forfeiting two dollars for the use of the town, and all necessary expenses for removing any corpse that may be buried contrary to the law) excepting those who have already lots set off to them. And when the term of office of the Sexton shall expire, he shall deliver up all the books and papers relating thereto to his successor in office.

Section 3. Be it further ordained, That if any person shall pull down, break, or injure the fences which enclose the burying ground, or any part of the same, or any palings, wall, or other enclosures of the burying lots, or shall cut, girdle or otherwise injure any tree situated in said burying ground, or shall break, injure or destroy any monument therein, he, she, or they so offending shall for each offence, forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, to be collected according to law.

Section 4. Be it further ordained, That in case of the absence or sickness of the Sexton it shall be lawful for him to appoint a deputy to be approved of by the Mayor, who shall be governed by the same laws and rules as are made for the Sexton, and he shall continue in office during the absence or inability of the Sexton. The fees of the Sexton for his services shall be regulated by a resolution of the Town Council.

Section 5. Be it further ordained, That that part of the burying ground which has been heretofore reserved, with the exception of one tier of lots already in part occupied by graves, thence all in front of said tier of lots to Fifth street, be, and the same is still reserved and shall not be taken up and occupied for graves.

Section 6. Be it further ordained, That no person be hereafter permitted to enclose a space for a family burying place without paying a reasonable compensation for the same.

Section 7. Be it further ordained, That the friends of strangers wishing to have their friends buried in the ground, pay two dollars for each grave for that privilege; and that all others be buried in the old burying ground; and that all persons residing without the limits of the township of Marietta be placed upon the same footing as strangers.

Section 8. Be it further ordained, That the ordinance passed the 8th day of August 1831, with all other ordinances on the subject of the burying ground and the same hereby are repealed.

This ordinance to take effect and be in force from and after the 1st day of August, 1837.

Passed June 28, 1837.

R. Prentiss, Chairman.

Thomas W. Ewart, Recorder.

Charlotte Scott and the Emancipation Memorial

Charlotte Scott From the Library of Congress

The Marietta Register, April 20, 1865:

A Noble Offering By a Grateful Heart

Charlotte Scott, a colored woman living at Dr. Rucker's on Putnam Street, Marietta, wishes to show, in a substantial manner, her profound regard and high veneration for Hon. Abraham Lincoln, especially in his proclamation of freedom to the slaves. She has handed me five dollars to be applied towards rearing a monument in memory of the greatest man, in her estimation, that ever lived on earth. This noble thought, so far as I know, originated with herself. She thinks many colored persons would love to contribute for this purpose, in this region. She wishes me to act as their agent and receive their contributions and hand over the same to such agents as the government may hereafter appoint to rear said monument. I consent, and will keep a faithful record of all such contributions.

C. D. Battelle

[This $5 is to be the foundation of a fund to be applied toward the erection of the Monument to Abraham Lincoln, for which Rev. Mr. Battelle - a suitable person for the purpose - will receive further contributions, depositing the same in bank as received, until the time for its applications shall arrive. - Ed. Reg.]

The Marietta Register, July 17, 1873:

From the St. Louis Democrat.

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln.

Just after President Lincoln's death it was announced that a woman named Charlotte Scott, in Marietta, Ohio, had sent $5, "her first earnings in freedom," to Mr. Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to build a monument in memory of the Great Emancipator. The publication of this fact led to an enthusiastic response from several colored regiments in Tennessee, and other Western-Southern States, and there was at one time a good prospect that $100,000 would be raised. 

But the amount reached was only about $16,000, which was reduced by cost of collection and by several unsuccessful efforts to obtain a suitable design. But by increase of interest received the fund now in the hands of the Sanitary Commission is about $21,000, and we are gratified to announce that an order has been sent to Thomas Ball in Florence for a group to be executed in bronze, colossal size, which will, as we believe, give universal satisfaction. It has already been executed in marble, reduced size (four feet high), and has been seen by all visitors to Ball's studio during the last five years; for it was done by the artist immediately after the President's assassination, with the hope that it would be some day wanted to tell the emancipation story. One of the members of the Sanitary Commission, being in Florence two years ago, requesting Mr. Ball to keep it for the present use, and the fund having now reached the requisite amount, and photographs of the group having been received and approved, the design has been accepted and the order sent forward.

It is expected to be finished, including a white marble pedestal, 12 feet high, and delivered in Washington City in about two years, to be unveiled and dedicated perhaps on the anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death, in 1876.

The Marietta Register, May 18, 1876:

Charlotte Scott and the Lincoln Statue

To the Editor of the Cincinnati Gazette:

The first contribution to the Lincoln Statue Fund was made by Charlotte Scott, who was born the slave of Capt. William Scott, an officer of the Revolutionary War, who resided on his plantation, near Judith Dam, four miles above Lynchburg, Virginia. Upon a division of Capt. Scott's estate after his death, among his children, Charlotte fell by allotment to his son, Thomas H. Scott, who also received the old homestead. On this plantation Charlotte Scott was born and raised, and there lived until the marriage of Mr. Scott's daughter, Margaret Ann, with Dr. William S. Rucker, in 1852, when she, among other slaves, was given to Mrs. Rucker by her father. 

Dr. Rucker and his wife being strong Unionists, left their residence at Covington, Virginia, to escape rebel persecution; and Charlotte, in the face of great opposition from certain persons, was finally, mainly through the exertions of Col. Joel McPhearson of Lewisburg, West Virginia, permitted to accompany her mistress. Being once through the military lines, Mrs. Rucker took up residence in Marietta, Ohio, Charlotte remaining a member of the family. 

The assassination of Mr. Lincoln was announced while the family were at breakfast. All were sad and silent. Charlotte was the first to speak: "Well! Well! The best friend the colored folks ever had is dead! The colored folks ought to raise a monument to his memory! I will give $5 freely! The Lord knows I will!" And she immediately deposited the $5 in the hands of a gentleman for the purpose. After the Rebellion, she went back to the old homestead in Virginia and now resides on a small portion of it, to which she has a fee simple title.

The Marietta Tri-Weekly Register, January 29, 1891:

Charlotte Scott, a Marietta Woman, Dead

The Colored Woman Whose Name Appears on the Lincoln Statue Passes Away.

At 736 10th Street northwest in a frame tenement house of not very pretentious appearance lives a colored family, the members of which, representing three generations, are today mourning the death of Mrs. Charlotte Scott, a colored woman whose name at one time was doubtless upon the lips of every man and woman in the United States and is now read by the thousands who annually visit the Lincoln statue at Lincoln Park.

Inscribed upon one of the bronze tablets resting upon the base is the following:

Freedom's Memorial

In grateful memory of

Abraham Lincoln.

This monument was erected

By the Western Sanitary Commission

Of St. Louis, Mo.,

With funds contributed solely by

Emancipated citizens of the United States

Declared free by his proclamation

January 1, A.D. 1863.

The first contribution of five dollars was made

by Charlotte Scott, a freed woman of

Virginia, being her first earnings

in Freedom and consecrated

By her suggestion and request

On the day she heard of President Lincoln's

death to build a monument to his memory.

The woman whose name is thus honored died Saturday night, the 24th instant, at her home, Reusens, a little railroad station about four miles from Lynchburg, in the one hundred and ninth year of her age. As stated in the inscription, she was the first to contribute to the erection of a monument to Abraham Lincoln and at that time lived in Marietta, Ohio. It is said that when she heard of the assassination of the President she exclaimed: "Lord have mercy - Mr. Lincoln is killed! He ought to have a monument and I am going to give the last cent I have for it," and immediately contributed the sum of $5. The St. Louis Commission, as it is known, was soon afterward formed and, taking this $5 as a nucleus, collected the fund for the erection of the famous emancipation group that now adorns Lincoln Park.

THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE

took place April 14, 1876, and in order to honor the name and person who had made the first contribution, Mrs. Scott, through the instrumentality of Prof. J. M. Langston, who by authority of Congress was chairman of the committee, and Frederick Douglass, who was orator of the day, was brought on and given a prominent place in the procession and exercises. Her picture was taken and many thousands of them sold, from which a large revenue was derived and which was devoted to paying for the monument. While here she was the recipient of many attentions and met all the leading promoers of the scheme and many of the prominent men of the day.

A SKETCH OF HER LIFE

Charlotte Scott was born a slave on what is still known as the Scott plantation, near Lynchberg, and took and retained the name of her owners. Some years before the war she went to Marietta, Ohio, as the maid of Mrs. Dr. Rucker, nee Margaret Scott, and there she was set free some two years prior to the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln, January 1, 1863. Notwithstanding her freedom she returned to her old friends on the farm of her nativity shortly after the cessation of hostilities, and from the old folks readily obtained four acres of land, upon which she built a modest but comfortable home in order, as she said, to be near "her children," as she called the members of the Scott family to the day of her death. Her confidence in her "old folks" never flagged and it was not misplaced.

In this city lives her daughter, Mrs. China Brice; her granddaughter, Mrs. Alice Anderson Lewis, and her great-granddaughter, Mary Anderson, all at 736 10th street northwest. Mrs. Brice left last evening for Lynchberg, thence to Reusens to attend the funeral and burial ceremonies, which will take place tomorrow or Wednesday.

Mrs. Scott has twelve children, six sons, all of whom are dead, and six daughters, some of whom are well known among their race. Besides Mrs. China Brice of this city, there are Mrs. Celia Scott of Philadelphia, Mrs. Emma Turner of Baltimore, Mrs. Maria Williams of Lynchburg, Mrs. Mary Cole, who lives with her mother and Mrs. Rachel Scott, who lives in the same neighborhood. (Washington, D.C. Star)

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln

The Marietta Register, July 17, 1873:

From the St. Louis Democrat.

The Freedmen's Monument to Lincoln.

Just after President Lincoln's death it was announced that a woman named Charlotte Scott, in Marietta, Ohio, had sent $5, "her first earnings in freedom," to Mr. Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, to build a monument in memory of the Great Emancipator. The publication of this fact led to an enthusiastic response from several colored regiments in Tennessee, and other Western-Southern States, and there was at one time a good prospect that $100,000 would be raised. 

But the amount reached was only about $16,000, which was reduced by cost of collection and by several unsuccessful efforts to obtain a suitable design. But by increase of interest received the fund now in the hands of the Sanitary Commission is about $21,000, and we are gratified to announce that an order has been sent to Thomas Ball in Florence for a group to be executed in bronze, colossal size, which will, as we believe, give universal satisfaction. It has already been executed in marble, reduced size (four feet high), and has been seen by all visitors to Ball's studio during the last five years; for it was done by the artist immediately after the President's assassination, with the hope that it would be some day wanted to tell the emancipation story. One of the members of the Sanitary Commission, being in Florence two years ago, requesting Mr. Ball to keep it for the present use, and the fund having now reached the requisite amount, and photographs of the group having been received and approved, the design has been accepted and the order sent forward.

It is expected to be finished, including a white marble pedestal, 12 feet high, and delivered in Washington City in about two years, to be unveiled and dedicated perhaps on the anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death, in 1876.

The Marietta Register, April 27, 1876:

The Lincoln Monument.  Dedicatory Exercises.

The Freedmen's monument to Lincoln, dedicated on the 14th, was the outgrowth of the enthusiasm of a poor slave, Charlotte Scott, now living at Lynchburg, Virginia. She was at the time in Marietta with her old master, who was a refugee. The following letter was the means of making Charlotte Scott's five dollars the nucleus for the monument fund:

St. Louis, April 26, 1865.

Jas. E. Yeatman, Esq.

My Dear Sir: A poor negro woman of Marietta, Ohio, one of those made free by President Lincoln's proclamation, proposes that a monument to their dead friend be erected by the colored people of the United States. She has handed to a person in Marietta five dollars as her contribution for the purpose. Such a monument would have a history more grand and touching than any of which we have account. Would not it be well to take up this suggestion and make it known to the freedmen?

Yours truly, T. C. H. Smith.

On the day of dedication Mr. Yeatman presided over the ceremonies and made the following statements:

In compliance with General Smith's suggestion, I published his letter, with a card, stating that any desiring to contribute to a fund for such a purpose that the Western Sanitary Commission would receive the same and see that it was judiciously appropriated as intended. In response to this communication liberal contributions were received

FROM COLORED SOLDIERS

under the command of General J. W. Davidson, headquarters at Natchez, Mississippi, amounting in all to $12,150. This was subsequently increased from other sources to $16,242.

From the liberal contributions made in the first instance, we are led to believe that a very much larger sum would have been subscribed. But, as our determination was to have a free-will offering without solicitation, we determined to rest with what was voluntarily contributed.

Harriet Hosmer, one of America's greatest sculptors, asked for permission to submit a design, which she did. It was one of great beauty and merit, and could it have been executed, it would have been one of the grandest and most beautiful monumental works of art ever erected in this or any other country. I mention this here as the design has doubtless been seen by some that are now present. It was published in the London Art Journal and other journals published in this and other countries. I trust yet that the gratitude of the freed people will prompt them to execute this grand design. I now proceed to give you the history of the Lincoln monument as adopted and executed.

One of the members of the Western Sanitary Commission, Rev. William G. Elliot, being in Florence in the autumn of 1869, when visiting the studio of Mr. Thomas Ball saw the group subsequently adopted, and was so much pleased with it that he spoke strongly in its praise after returning to St. Louis. He had learned from Mr. Ball that the work was conceived and executed under the first influence of the news of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. No order for such a group had been received, but Mr. Ball felt sure that the time would come when there would be a demand for it, and, at any rate, he felt an inward demand to produce it. His aim was to present

ONE SINGLE IDEA

For several years it has stood there in its place, greatly admired, but not finding the direction of its rightful destination. But, when the artist heard of the possible use to which it might be put as the memorial of freedom by the emancipated slaves themselves, he at once said that he should hold it with that view until the commission were prepared to take action, and that the price to be paid would be altogether a secondary consideration. When the description was given to the other members of the Western Sanitary Commission, they sent for photographs, four of which, presenting the group at different points of view, were taken in Florence and forwarded to them. They at once decided to accept the design, and an order was given for its immediate execution in bronze, in accordance with the suggestions made by Mr. Ball. The original group was in Italian marble and differs in some respects from the bronze group now to be inaugurated. In the original the kneeling slave is represented as perfectly passive, receiving the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. But the artist justly changed this to bring the presentation nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated slave an

AGENT IN HIS OWN DELIVERANCE

He is accordingly represented as exerting his strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him. A far greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted.

*     *     *     *     *

Mr. Matthews read the poem written for the occasion by Miss Ray and entitled, "Lincoln," as follows:

To-day, O martyred chief! beneath the sun
We would unveil thy form; to thee who won
The applause of nations, for thy soul sincere,
A living tribute we would offer here.
'Twas thine not worlds to conquer, but men's hearts;
To change to balm the sting of slavery's darts;
In lowly charity thy joy to find,
And open "gates of mercy on mankind."
And so they come, the freed, with grateful gift,
From whose sad path the shadows thou didst lift.
Eleven years have rolled, their seasons round
Since itts most tragic close thy life-work found.
Yet through the vistas of the vanished days
We see thee still, responsive in our gaze
As ever to thy country's solemn needs.
Not regal coronets, but princely deeds,
Were thy chaste diadem; of truer worth
Thy modest virtues than the gems of earth.
Staunch, honest, fervent in the purest cause,
Truth was thy guide; her mandates were thy laws.

Rare heroism; spirit purity;
The storied Spartan's stern simplicity;
Such moral strength as gleams like burnished gold
Amid the doubts of men of weaker mold
Were thine, Called in thy country's sorest hour.
When brother knew not brother-mad for power-
To guide the helm through bloody deeps of war,
While distant nations gazed in anxious awe,
Unflinching in the task, thou didst fulfill
Thy mighty mission with a deathless will.

Born to a destiny the most sublime,
Thou wert, O Lincoln! in the march of time.
God bade thee pause-and bid the oppressed go free-
Most glorious boon giv'n to humanity.
While Slavery ruled the land, what deeds were done!
What tragedies enacted 'neath the sun!
Her page is blurred with records of defeat
Of lives heroic lived in silence-meet
For the world's praise-of woe, despair and tears-
The speechless agony of weary years!

Thou utterest the word, and Freedom fair
Rang her sweet bells on the clear winter air;
She waved her magic wand, and lo! from far
A long procession came! with many a scar.
Their brows were wrinkled-in the bitter strife
Full many had said their sad farewell to life.

But on they hasten'd-free-their shackles gone-
The aged, young-e'en infancy was borne
To offer unto thee loud paeons of praise-
Their happy tribute after saddest days.

A race set free! The deed brought joy and light!
It bade calm justice from her sacred height,
When faith, and hope, and courage slowly waned.
Unfurl the stars and stripes at last unstained!
The nations rolled acclaim from sea to sea,
And Heaven's vaults rang with Freedom's harmony.
The angels 'mid the amaranths must have hush'd
Their chanted cadence, as upward rush'd
The hymn sublime; and as the echoes pealed
God's ceaseless benison the action sealed.

As now we dedicate this shaft to thee,
True champion! in all humility
And solemn earnestness, we would erect
A monument invisible, undecked,
Save by our allied purpose to be true
To Freedom's loftiest precepts, so that thro'
The fiercest contests we may walk secure,
Fixed on foundations that may still endure
When granite shall have crumbled to decay
And generations passed from earth away.

Exalted patriot! illustrious chief!
Thy life's immortal work compels belief.
To-day in radiance thy virtues shine,
And how can we a fitting garland twine?
Thy crown most glorious is a ransomed race!
High on our country's scroll we fondly trace
In lines of fadeless light that softly blend;
Emancipation, hero, martyr, friend!
While Freedom may her holy sceptre claim
The world shall echo with "Our Lincoln's" name.

Professor Langston then introduced the orator of the day, Hon. Frederick Douglass, with the following words: "I experience especial pleasure in introducing to you the orator of the occasion, the Hon. Frederick Douglass."

Mr. Douglass was received with applause. During the delivery of the oration the approbation of his hearers was manifested in many ways, and he was frequently interrupted with applause. This address was as follows:

ORATION OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Friends and Fellow Citizens: I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object that has caused you to assemble in such numbers and spirit as you have to-day. This occasion is in some respects remarkable. Wise and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lessons of our history in the United States, who shall survey the long and dreary space over which we have traveled, who shall count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will make a note of this occasion - they will think of it, and with a sense of manly pride and complacency. I congratulate you also upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet to-day. They are high, inspiring, and uncommon. They lend grace, glory, and significance to the object for which we have met. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, uncounted wealth, and immeasurable territory extending form sea, could conditions be found more favorable to the success of this occasion than here. We stand to-day at the national centre to perform something like a national act, an act which is to go into history, and we are here where every pulsation of the national heart can be heard, felt and reciprocated.

A THOUSAND WIRES

fed with thought and winged with lightning, put us in instantaneous communication with the loyal and true men all over this country. Few facts could better illustrate the vast and wonderful change which has taken place in our condition as a people than the fact of our assembling here for the purpose we have to-day. Harmless, beautiful, proper and praise-worthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago. The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here to-day the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence. That we are here in  peace to-day is a compliment and credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice, but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then, the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races - white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present and the future, with

THE LONG AND DARK HISTORY

of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.

Friends and fellow-citizens: The story of our presence here is soon and easily told. We are here in the District of Columbia; here in the city of Washington, the most luminous point of American territory - a city recently transformed and made beautiful in its body and its spirit; we are here, in the place where the ablest and best men of the country are sent to devise the policy, enact the laws and shape the destiny of the Republic; we are here, with the stately pillars and majestic dome of the Capitol of the nation looking down upon us; we are here, with the broad earth freshly adorned with the foliage and flowers of spring for our church, and all races, colors and conditions of men for our congregation; in a word, we are here to express, as best we may, by appropriate forms and ceremonies, our grateful sense of the vast, high and pre-eminent service rendered to ourselves, to our race, to our country and to the whole world 

BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart. It has crowned and made glorious the high places of all civilized nations, with the grandest and most enduring works of art, designed to illustrate characters and perpetuate the memories of great public men. It is the sentiment which from year to year adorns with fragrant and beautiful flowers the graves of our loyal, brave, and patriotic soldiers who fell in defense of the Union and liberty. It is the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation, which often, in the presence of many who hear me, has filled yonder heights of Arlington with the eloquence of eulogy and the sublime enthusiasm of poetry and song; a sentiment which can never die while the Republic lives. For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom. First things are always interesting, and this is one of our first things. It is the first time that, in this form and manner, we have sought to do honor to any American great man, however deserving and illustrious. I commend the fact to notice. Let it be told in every part of the Republic; let men of all parties and opinions hear it; let hose who despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that now and here, in the spirit of

LIBERTY, LOYALTY, AND GRATITUDE

let it be known everywhere and by everybody who takes an interest in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of mankind, that in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American House of Representatives, reflecting the highest intelligence and the calmest judgment of the country; in presence of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of the United States, to whose decisions we all patriotically bow; in the presence and under the steady eye of the honored and trusted President of the United States, we, the colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of the first century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line, feature, and figure of which the man of this generation may read- and those of after-coming generations may read-something of the exalted character and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr President of the United States.

In all his education and feelings he was an

AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS

He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his own race. To protect, defend and perpetuate slavery in the States where it existed, Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed constitutional guarantees of the Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the Slave States. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his guilty master were already in arms against the Government. The race to which we belong were not the special objects of his consideration. Knowing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens, a pre-eminence in this worship at once full and supreme. First, midst, and last, you and yours were the objects of his deepest affection and his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by force of circumstances and necessity. To you it especially belongs to sound his praises, to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon your walls, and commend his example, for to you he was a great and glorious friend and benefactor. Instead of supplanting you at this altar, we would exhort you to build high his monuments; let them be of the most costly material, of the most cunning workmanship; let their forms be symmetrical, beautiful, and perfect; let their bases be upon solid rocks, and their summits lean against the unchanging blue, overhanging sky, and let them endure forever! But while in the abundance of your wealth, and in the fullness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat you to despise not the humble offering we this day unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. Fellow-citizens, ours is no new-born zeal and devotion--merely a thing of this moment. The name of Abraham Lincoln was near and dear to our hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours of the Republic. We were no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt, and defeat than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory. Our faith in him was often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never failed. When he tarried long in the mountain; when he strangely told us that we were the cause of the war; when he still more strangely told us to leave the land in which we were born; when he refused to employ our arms in defence of the Union; when, after accepting our services as colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate our murder and torture as colored prisoners; when he told us he would save the Union if he could with slavery; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of General Frémont; when he refused to remove the popular commander of the Army of the Potomac, in the days of its inaction and defeat, who was more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress rebellion; when we saw all this, and more, we were at times grieved, stunned, and greatly bewildered; but our hearts believed while they ached and bled. Nor was this, even at that time, a blind and unreasoning superstition. Despite the mist and haze that surrounded him; despite the tumult, the hurry, and confusion of the hour, we were able to take a comprehensive view of Abraham Lincoln, and to make reasonable allowance for the circumstances of his position. We saw him, measured him, and estimated him; not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious delegations, who often tried his patience; not by isolated facts torn from their connection; not by any partial and imperfect glimpses, caught at inopportune moments; but by a broad survey, in the light of the stern logic of great events, and in view of that divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, we came to the conclusion that the hour and the man of our redemption had somehow met in the person of Abraham Lincoln. It mattered little to us what language he might employ on special occasions; it mattered little to us, when we fully knew him, whether he was swift or slow in his movements; it was enough for us that Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement, and was in living and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things, must go on until slavery should be utterly and forever abolished in the United States. When, therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of Abraham Lincoln, or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer is ready, full, and complete. Though he loved Caesar less than Rome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood; under his wise and beneficent rule, and by measures approved and vigorously pressed by him, we saw that the handwriting of ages, in the form of prejudice and proscription, was rapidly fading away from the face of our whole country; under his rule, and in due time, about as soon after all as the country could tolerate the strange spectacle, we saw our brave sons and brothers laying off the rags of bondage, and being clothed all over in the blue uniforms of the soldiers of the United States; under his rule we saw two hundred thousand of our dark and dusky people responding to the call of Abraham Lincoln, and with muskets on their shoulders, and eagles on their buttons, timing their high footsteps to liberty and union under the national flag; under his rule we saw the independence of the black republic of Hayti, the special object of slaveholding aversion and horror, fully recognized, and her minister, a colored gentleman, duly received here in the city of Washington; under his rule we saw the internal slavetrade, which so long disgraced the nation, abolished, and slavery abolished in the District of Columbia; under his rule we saw for the first time the law enforced against the foreign slave-trade, and the first slavetrader hanged like any other pirate or murderer; under his rule, assisted by the greatest captain of our age, and his inspiration, we saw the Confederate States, based upon the idea that our race must be slaves, and slaves forever, battered to pieces and scattered to the four winds; under his rule, and in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln, after giving the slaveholders three months' grace in which to save their hateful slave system, penning the immortal paper, which, though special in its language, was general in its principles and effect, making slavery forever impossible in the United States. Though we waited long, we saw all this and more. Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January, 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word? I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a distant city I waited and watched at the public meeting, with three thousand others not less anxious than myself, for the word of deliverance which we have heard read to-day. Nor shall I ever forget the outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning brought to us the emancipation proclamation. In that happy hour we forgot all delay, and forgot all tardiness, forgot that the President had bribed the rebels to lay down their arms by a promise to withhold the bolt which smite the slave-system with destruction; and we were thenceforward willing to allow the President all the latitude of time, phraseology, and every honorable device that statesmanship might require for the achievement of a great and beneficent measure of liberty and progress. Fellow-citizens, there is little necessity on this occasion to speak at length and critically of this great and good man, and of his high mission in the world. That ground has been fully occupied and completely covered both here and elsewhere. The whole field of fact and fancy has been gleaned and garnered. Any man can say things that are true of Abraham Lincoln, but no man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln. His personal traits and public acts are better known to the American people than are those of any other man of his age. He was a mystery to no man who saw him and heard him. Though high in position, the humblest could approach him and feel at home in his presence. Though deep, he was transparent; though strong, he was gentle; though decided and pronounced in his convictions, he was tolerant towards those who differed from him, and patient under reproaches. Even those who only knew him through his public utterances obtained a tolerably clear idea of his character and his personality. The image of the man went out with his words, and those who read them, knew him. I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin ; and second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful co-operation of his loyal fellow countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent ; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who could say, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether" gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go. Fellow-citizens, whatever else in this world may be partial, unjust, and uncertain, time, time! is impartial, just, and certain in its action. In the realm of mind, as well as in the realm of matter, it is a great worker, and often works wonders. The honest and comprehensive statesman, clearly discerning the needs of his country, and earnestly endeavoring to do his whole duty, though covered and blistered with reproaches, may safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time. Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house of his friends. Reproaches came thick and fast upon him from within and form without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed by Abolitionists; he was assailed by slaveholders; he was assailed by the men who were for peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war; he was assailed for not making the war an abolition war; and he was most bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war. But now behold the change: the judgment of the present hour is, that taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln. His birth, his training, and his natural endowments, both mental and physical, were strongly in his favor. Born and reared among the lowly, a stranger to wealth and luxury, compelled to grapple singlehanded with the flintiest hardships from tender youth to sturdy manhood, he grew strong in the manly and heroic qualities demanded by the great mission to which he was called by the votes of his countrymen. The hard condition of his early life, which would have depressed and broken down weaker men, only gave greater life, vigor and buoyancy to the heroic spirit of Abraham Lincoln. He was ready for any kind and any quality of work. What other young men dreaded in the shape of toil, he took hold of with the utmost cheerfulness.

A spade, a rake, a hoe,

A pick-axe or a bill;

A hook to reap, a scythe to mow,

A flail, or what you will.

ALL DAY LONG HE COULD SPLIT HEAVY RAILS

in the woods, and half the night long he could study his English grammar by the uncertain flare and glare of the light made by a pine knot. He was at home on the land with his axe, with his maul, with gluts and his wedges; and he was equally at home on water with his oars, with his poles, with his planks and with his boathooks. And whether in his flatboat on the Mississippi river, or at the fireside of his frontier cabin, he was a man of work. A son of toil himself he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the Republic.

Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; had he reached that good old age of which his vigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of death come down but gradually, we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief and treasured his name lovingly. But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence; killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate, for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him, but because of his fidelity to Union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and will be precious forever.

Fellow-citizens, I end as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race to-day. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator we have been doing highest honor to ourselves and those who come after us. We have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal. We have also been defending ourselves from a blighting slander. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless; that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.