#mourninglincoln

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Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr President

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, sent shock waves through the nation, north and south. In the North, the widespread portrayal of Lincoln as a martyr to the nation and to freedom arose almost immediately, perhaps first in the sermons preached from hundreds of pulpits on April 16th and then appearing in popular poetry, images, and songs. 

Lincoln was shot on Good Friday and died the next morning. Easter Sunday dawned on a nation trying to comprehend the assassination of its president. In response to the national tragedy, ministers in churches across the country changed their sermons from joyful messages about Christ’s resurrection to tributes to the fallen president who, for many, had been murdered for the sins of his nation.

In Brooklyn, N.Y., Rev. Charles S. Robinson preached this sermon, titled “The Martyred President,” in which he proclaimed that “a martyr’s blow has sealed” the cause of Union and freedom and made it “eternally secure.” 

Rev. Frederick Starr, Jr., agrees. In his sermon “The Martyr President” he proclaims that the president “died in the path of duty. He died for the principles of right and liberty,” and his martyrdom binds his country to those principles.

Rev. John George Butler also saw Lincoln as a martyr, but in his sermon “The Martyr President, Our Grief and Our Duty” he emphasized the action that martyrdom demanded of the living: “The work so auspiciously begun, so successfully prosecuted by our martyred President, must be carried on, until the world shall enjoy that freedom wherewith Christ makes the people free.”

In his sermon, also titled “The Martyr President,” Rev. Daniel C. Eddy delivered a similar message—the president’s martyrdom required the living to act in his stead.

Twenty-one similar sermons were gathered and published in 476-page volume titled Our Martyr President, Abraham Lincoln: Voices from the Pulpit of New York and Brooklyn. Lincoln as martyr was a powerful and widespread portrayal on Black Easter.

Poets joined preachers in eulogizing Lincoln as the martyr president. Minister and writer Phoebe A. Hanaford published this poem, titled “Our Martyred President” soon after Lincoln’s death. It begins, “With aching heart in grief-toned word I tell / How Lincoln lived and labored, how he fell, / … That Freedom might o’er all our land preside.” And it ends, “Aye, thanks and praise, with tears of sorrow blent, / To one true man — Our Martyred President!” 

In his poem “The Martyr President,” R.H. Newell proclaims the need for Lincoln’s martyrdom—“’Twas needed—the fall of our Highest and best— / To rouse to their duty the hearts of the rest … ’Twas needed,—the name of a Martyr sublime / To vindicate God in this terrible time.” The nation would remember “The name of the patrior Martyr / Who laid down his life for thy sake.”

Images of the president as martyr were offered on mourning ribbons like these…

on mourning broadsides...

…and as cartes-de-visite and prints. “The Martyr and the Father” and “Our Martyr” were sold to be included in individuals’ albums or memory books. 

The Currier & Ives print “Abraham Lincoln, The Nations Martyr” was to be framed to be displayed on a wall.

Musical composers also wrote to honor the man they saw as a martyr. Among the many funeral marches composed in honor of Lincoln was “The Martyred Patriot” by J.W. Porter.

Other songs were written to be performed by choirs or vocal ensembles. “Our Martyr President” by W. Dexter Smith and Oscar Linden was written for voices and piano.

The refrain to this “Tribute to Lincoln” by George P. Graff and Jason E. Glass echoes the title: “Rest, martyr, rest / From the scenes of death and pain” and finishes “Thy noble deeds remain.”

James G. Clark’s “The Martyr of Liberty” was composed “In Memory of President Lincoln” and dedicated to the widowed First Lady. The dedication was appropriate, for Mary Lincoln, like many Americans of her time, saw President Lincoln as a martyr to the cause of freedom and country.