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with sinewy arm, three times he plunged his dagger into the throat and neck of Mr. Seward. The wounded man, in the strug gle, rolled from his bed upon the floor. An attendant sprang upon the assassin; but the wretch with his dagger cut himself loose, and escaped into the street, after stabbing five persons who at tempted to arrest him in his escape. A kind Providence, in various ways, sheltered the others who were marked for destruction.

It was not deemed safe to inform Mr. Seward, in his perilous condition, of the assassination of the President, as it was feared that the shock would be greater than he could bear. Sunday morning, however, he had his bed wheeled round, so that he could see the tops of the trees in the park opposite his chamber. His eye caught sight of the stars and stripes at half-mast over the building of the War Department. For a moment he gazed upon the flag in silence, and then, turning to his attendant, said, “The President is dead!" The attendant, much embarrassed, stammered a reply. "If he had been alive," continued the Secretary, "he would have been the first to call upon me. But he has not been here, nor has he sent to know how I am; and there is the flag at half-mast!" As he said this, tears rolled down his cheeks.

Never before, in the history of the world, was a nation plunged into such deep grief by the death of its ruler. Abraham Lincoln had won the affections of all patriot hearts. Strong men met in the streets, and wept in speechless anguish. It is not too much to say that a nation was in tears. As the awful tidings flew along the wires, funeral-bells were tolled in city and in country, flags everywhere were at half-mast, and groups gathered in silent consternation. It was Saturday morning when the murder was announced. On Sunday, all the churches were draped in mourning. The atrocious act was the legitimate result of the vile Rebellion, and was in character with its developed ferocity from the beginning to the end.

The grief of the colored people was sublime in its universality and its intensity. A Northern gentleman, who was in Charleston, S. C., when the tidings of the assassination reached there, writes,

"I never saw such sad faces or heard such heavy heart-beatings as here in Charleston the day the dreadful news came. The colored people, the native loyalists, were like children bereaved

of an only and a loved parent. I saw one old woman going up the street wringing her hands, and saying aloud as she walked, looking straight before her, so absorbed in her grief that she noticed no one,

"O Lord, O Lord, O Lord! Massa Sam's dead! Massa Sam's dead! O Lord! Massa Sam's dead!'

"Who's dead, aunty?' I asked her.

"Massa Sam!" she said, not looking at me. 'O Lord, O Lord! Massa Sam's dead!'

"Who's Massa Sam?' I asked.

"Uncle Sam !" she said. 'O Lord, O Lord!'

"I was not quite sure that she meant the President, and I spoke again. 'Who's Massa Sam, aunty?'

"Mr. Linkum,' she said, and resumed wringing her hands, and moaning in utter hopelessness of sorrow. The poor creature was too ignorant to comprehend any difference between the very unreal Uncle Sam and the actual President; but her heart told her that he whom Heaven had sent in answer to her prayers was lying in a bloody grave, and that she and her race were left fatherless."

The body of the President was removed to the White House, and placed in a coffin almost buried in flowers, which the affection of a bereaved people supplied. It is estimated that fifty thousand persons went to the White House to take a last look of his loved face. The funeral solemnities were conducted by clergymen of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist churches. Dr. Gurley, in his noble tribute to the deceased, said,

"Probably no man, since the days of Washington, was ever so deeply and firmly embedded and enshrined in the hearts of the people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it, deserved it well, deserved it all. He merited it by his character, by his acts, and by the tenor and tone and spirit of his life."

It may be truly said that the funeral-train extended fifteen hundred miles, - from Washington to Springfield, Ill. Groups gathered as mourners at every station, bells were tolled, and bands of music breathed forth their plaintive requiems. In some places, the railway, for miles, was lined with a continuous group of men, women, and children, standing in silence, with uncovered heads and swimming eyes, as the solemn pageant swept by. It

would require a volume to describe the scenes which were witnessed in the various cities and villages through which the funeral procession passed.

The train reached Springfield, Ill., on the morning of the 3d of May. Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Church, a personal friend of the President, in his funeral address quoted the following words from one of the speeches of Mr. Lincoln in 1859. Speaking of the slave-power, Mr. Lincoln said,

"Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which I deem to be just; and it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of the almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world besides, and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before high Heaven, and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love."

England vied with America in expressions of respect and affection for our martyred President. The statement contained in "The London Spectator" will surely be the verdict of posterity, that Abraham Lincoln was "the best if not the ablest man then ruling over any country in the civilized world." The Queen of England, with her own hand, wrote a letter of condolence to Mrs. Lincoln. The sympathy which was manifested for us by the English, in this our great grief, so touched all loyal hearts, that Americans began to think that it was possible that England and America might yet again be united in the bonds of brotherly love, burying all past grievances in oblivion.

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His Lowly Origin. - Struggles for Education.- Early Distinction.- Alderman, Mayor, State Representative, State Senator.- Speeches. - Member of Congress. - Governor. — Anecdote. - United-States Senator. - Opposition to Secession.-Speeches. - Gradual Change of Views. - Military Governor of Tennessee. - Address to the Colored People.Vigorous Administration. - Vice-President. - Speeches. - President. - Political Views. -Agreement with the Republican Party. Conflict with Congress. His Policy.

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Articles of Amendment. - Peter Cooper. - Future Prospects.

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THE early life of Andrew Johnson contains but the record of poverty, destitution, and friendlessness. He was born the 29th of

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December, 1808, in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. His parents, belonging to the class of the "poor whites" of the South, were in such circumstances, that they could not confer even the

slightest advantages of education upon their child. When Andrew was five years of age, his father accidentally lost his life while heroically endeavoring to save a friend from drowning. Until ten years of age, Andrew was a ragged boy about the streets, supported by the labor of his mother, who obtained her living with her own hands.

He then, having never attended a school one day, and being unable either to read or write, was apprenticed to a tailor in his native town. A benevolent gentleman of Raleigh was in the habit of going to the tailor's shop occasionally, and reading to the boys at work there. He often read from the speeches of distinguished British statesmen. Andrew, who was endowed with a mind of more than ordinary native ability, became much interested in these speeches: his ambition was roused, and he was inspired with a strong desire to learn to read.

He accordingly applied himself to the alphabet, and, with the assistance of some of his fellow-workmen, learned his letters. He then called upon the gentleman to borrow the book of speeches. The owner, pleased with his zeal, not only gave him the book, but assisted him in learning to combine the letters into words. Under such difficulties he pressed onward laboriously, spending usually ten or twelve hours at work in the shop, and then robbing himself of rest and recreation to devote such time as he could to reading.

In 1824, when sixteen years of age, having finished his apprenticeship, he went to Laurens Court House, in South Carolina, and worked as a journeyman tailor for two years. It does not appear, that, during this time, he made much progress in his attempts to learn to read with correctness and fluency. It is said that he became quite interested in a girl of the village, and would have married her but for the objections which her parents made in consequence of his extreme youth.

In 1826, he returned to Raleigh, and, taking his mother with him, removed to Greenville, a small town in East Tennessee, where he resumed his work as a journeyman tailor, and married a young woman of very estimable character, and who was so decidedly in advance of him in point of education, that she became his teacher in reading, writing, and arithmetic. She read to him. as he plied the needle on the bench, and in the evenings instructed him in other branches. Rapidly the young mechanic advanced in intelligence. His mental energy gave him influence among the

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