The meaning of Lincoln’s funeral

GUESTWORK | Phil Bradley

The planned re-creation of the Lincoln funeral train and reenacting of the funeral ceremonies in Springfield scheduled for May mark a remembrance of a great president and an inspirational world figure. That is how he is widely regarded today. But it wasn’t always so.

During his presidency Lincoln elicited negative reactions from many Americans. Residents of the 11 states of the South hated him as the commander in chief of an army that ravaged the South and killed unprecedented numbers of combatants.

Democrats fought an election to remove him from office less than a year before his death. Newspapers editorialized against him. Cartoonists portrayed him as a gorilla.

And many criticized the Emancipation Proclamation as an illegal executive order.

There was, in short, joy on the part of many who heard of his death.

When I was young, my greatgrandmother Platt lived with us. She had been 10 years old when Lincoln died. She often told of the mixed reactions to Lincoln’s assassination.

Mary Hubbard Platt grew up on her family’s farm called Hubbard Hill a few miles outside Aurora, Indiana. Aurora is a small town on the Ohio River downstream from Cincinnati.

During the Civil War the area, although in a Northern state, was populated by some people with Southern sympathies and others who were loyal to the Union. Greatgrandmother’s family had been Whigs who shifted their loyalty to the Republicans and Lincoln.

During the war a group called Morgan’s Raiders swept through southern Indiana. They were a group of Confederate troops attacking their enemies across the border. Some in the neighborhood welcomed them. Union loyalists, however, were terrified.

The Hubbards fled in fear, but not before burying the family silver in the nearby woods to protect it from the looting marauders. We still have one of those silver spoons which was passed down through the family.

Scares like that happening in both the North and the South spread fear. And the death of family members in the war caused hatred of the other side.

The Hubbards lost a son in the Battle of the Wilderness. On the other side of my family a great-great grandfather raised a company of volunteers in Menard County to fight for the Union. Several of his sons joined up. A couple were wounded in battle.

So the war and Lincoln were close and personal to many. The Civil War took a staggering toll in injuries and death.

And in those days the government did little to recover or bury the dead. The cemeteries at Gettysburg and at Arlington were the first major federal attempts to honor the many fatalities.

But many dead were not so honored.

They ended up in anonymous mass graves.

The outpouring of mourning by the thousands who watched the funeral train pass or who walked past the casket as it lay in state was not only to honor Lincoln the fallen hero, but also, in some way, to pay homage to a fallen brother or son or husband who had no funeral.

The Lincoln funeral offered closure to many suffering private sorrow.

Great-grandmother remembered an April evening on the farm when their hired man returned from town drunk and dancing his way up the road. Still singing and celebrating the news he had heard in town.

That morning the telegraph had relayed the news that Lincoln had been shot the night before and had died. While people in town mourned or celebrated during the day, the news only reached the farm hours later with the hired man’s return.

The hired man, being a southern sympathizer, was thrilled by the news that the warmongering dictator was dead. He was not alone. While many mourned, others delighted in Lincoln’s death. The Hubbards mourned the great man.

As we in his hometown prepare to commemorate Lincoln’s death 150 years later, we should also consider the state of our Union today.

Lincoln died through the action of one man. That action was fed, in part, by people, including parts of the press, who espoused hate for the president and for his actions running the country.

That strain of hatred still runs through our public discourse.

Though the Civil War ended the secession of the South, states’ rights remains an issue. There are legislators in Texas who want their state to leave the union. Some of the rhetoric criticizing President Obama is unworthy of citizens of a democracy.

We should pay tribute to the life of Lincoln the Emancipator and Savior of the Union. And remember not only his ultimate sacrifice but also the sacrifice of tens of thousands who gave up their lives in a cause that made Lincoln worthy of veneration.

As we honor the burial of Lincoln, we should also admit that his work is still not done.

We are still not fully embracing Lincoln’s vision: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”

Phil Bradley of Springfield is descended from families which included Union soldiers and one of Lincoln’s Springfield neighbors.