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But nearer down, and just opposite the catafalque so that it is
perpendicular to the direction of vision, stand the central powers of
our government, its President and counsellors. President Johnson is
facing the middle of the coffin upon the lowest step; his hands are
crossed upon his breast, his dark clothing just revealing his plaited
shirt, and upon his full, plethoric, shaven face, broad and severely
compact, two telling gray eyes rest under a thoughtful brow, whose
turning hair is straight and smooth. Beside him are Vice-President
Hamlin, whom he succeeded, and ex-Governor King, his most intimate
friend, who lends to the ruling severity of the place a half Falstaffian
episode. The cabinet are behind, as if arranged for a daguerreotypist,
Stanton, short and quicksilvery, in long goatee and glasses, in stunted
contrast to the tall and snow-tipped shape of Mr. Welles with the rest,
practical and attentive, and at their side is Secretary Chase, high,
dignified, and handsome, with folded arms, listening, but
undemonstrative, a half-foot higher than any spectator, and dividing
with Charles Sumner, who is near by, the preference for manly beauty in
age. With Mr. Chase are other justices of the Supreme Court and to their
left, near the feet of the corpse, are the reverend senators,
representing the oldest and the newest states--splendid faces, a little
worn with early and later toils, backed up by the high, classical
features of Colonel Forney, their secretary. Beyond are the
representatives and leading officials of the various departments, with a
few odd folks like George Francis Train, exquisite as ever, and, for
this time only, with nothing to say.
Close by the corpse sit the relatives of the deceased, plain, honest,
hardy people, typical as much of the simplicity of our institutions as
of Mr. Lincoln's self-made eminence. No blood relatives of Mr. Lincoln
were to be found. It is a singular evidence of the poverty of his
origin, and therefore of his exceeding good report, that, excepting his
immediate family, none answering to his name could be discovered. Mrs.
Lincoln's relatives were present, however, in some force. Dr. Lyman
Beecher Todd, General John B. S. Todd, C. M. Smith, Esq., and Mr. N. W.
Edwards, the late President's brother-in-law, plain, self-made people
were here and were sincerely affected. Captain Robert Lincoln sat during
the services with his face in his handkerchief weeping quietly, and
little Tad his face red and heated, cried as if his heart would break.
Mrs. Lincoln, weak, worn, and nervous, did not enter the East room nor
follow the remains. She was the chief magistrate's lady yesterday;
to-day a widow bearing only an immortal name. Among the neighbors of the
late President, who came from afar to pay respect to his remains, was
one old gentleman who left Richmond on Sunday. I had been upon the boat
with him and heard him in hot wrangle with some officers who advised the
summary execution of all rebel leaders. This the old man opposed, when
the feeling against him became so intense that he was compelled to
retire. He counselled mercy, good faith, and forgiveness. To-day, the
men who had called him a traitor, saw him among the family mourners,
bent with grief. All these are waiting in solemn lines, standing erect,
with a space of several feet between them and the coffin, and there is
no bustle nor unseemly curiosity, not a whisper, not a footfall--only
the collected nation looking with awed hearts upon eminent death.
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