86. LXXXVI.
THE ASSASSINATION.
Saint's Rest, (wich is in the Stait uv Noo Gersey,) }
April the 20th, 1865.
The nashen mourns! The hand uv the vile
assassin hez bin raised agin the Goril—the head
uv the nashen, and the people's Father hez fallen
beneath the hand uv a patr—vile assassin.
While Aberham Linkin wuz a livin, I need not
say that I did not love him. Blessed with a mind
uv no ordinary dimensions, endowed with all the
goodness uv Washinton, I alluz bleevd him to hev
bin guilty uv all the crimes uv a Nero.
No man in Noo Gersey laments his untimely
deth more than the undersined. I commenst
weepin perfoosely the minit I diskivered a squad
uv returned soljers cumin round the corner, who
wuz a forsin constooshnel Dimekrats to hang out
mournin.
Troo, he did n't agree with me, but I kin overlook
that—it wuz his misforchoon. Troo, he hung
unoffendin men, in Kentucky, whose only crime
wuz in bein loyal to what they deemed their guverment,
ez tho a man in this free country coodent
choose wich guverment he 'd live under. Troo,
he made cold-blooded war, in the most feendish
manner, on the brave men uv the South, who wuz
only assertin the heven-born rite uv roolin theirselves.
Troo, he levied armies, made up uv
pimps, whose cheefest delite wuz in ravishin the
wives and daughters uv the South, and a miscellaneous
burnin their houses. Troo, he kept in2
offis jist sich men ez wood sekund him in his hell-begotten
skeems, and dismist every man who refused
to becum ez depraved ez he wuz. Troo, he
wood read uv these scenes uv blood and carnage,
and in high glee tell filthy anecdotes; likewise
wood he ride over the feeld uv battle, and ez the
wheels uv his gorgus carriage crushed into the
shudrin earth the bodies uv the fallen braves,
sing Afrikin melodies.
Yet I, in common with all troo Dimekrats,
weep! We weep! We wish it to be distinkly
understood, we weep! Ther wuz that in him that
instinktively forsis us to weep over his deth, and
to loathe the foul assassin who so suddenly removed
so much loveliness uv charikter. He hed
ended the war uv oppression—he hed subjoogatid
a free and brave peeple, who were strugglin for
their rites, and hed em under his feet; but I, in
common with all Dimekrats, mourn his deth!
Hed it happened in 1862, when it wood hev
bin uv sum yoose to us, we wood not be so bowed
down with wo and anguish. It wood hev throde
the guverment in2 confusion, and probably hev
sekoored the independence uv the South.
But, alas! the tragedy cum at the wrong time!
Now, we are saddled with the damnin crime,
when it will prodoose no results. The war wuz
over. The game wuz up when Richmond wuz
evacuated. Why kill Linkin then? For revenge?
Revenge is a costly luxury—a party so
near bankrupt ez the Dimokrasy can not afford to
indulge in it. The wise man hez no sich word
ez revenge in his dixonary—the fool barters his
hope for it.
Didst think that Linkin's deth would help the
South? Linkin's hand wuz velvet — Johnson's
may be, to the eye, but to the feel it will be
found iron. Where Linkin switched, Johnson will
flay. Where Linkin banished, Johnson will hang.
Davis wuz shocked when he heard it—so wuz I,
and, in common with all troo Dimekrats, I weep.
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.
