"Thief ne'er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law."
At a public meeting held in Chicago, after the announcement of the assassination, Rev. Dr. Tiffany, in an able and eloquent address said:
"God alone is great. At rare intervals he sends us a man beyond the limit of our measure. Our attention has been directed to the excellences of the character which belonged to our late President, and to the spirit of the system which gave strength to the blow of the assassin. A more terrible topic is now to be discussed--our relation to that spirit--our responsibility for that blow.
We have been accustomed to say, "slavery is sectional, and freedom national," let those who elect slavery take the results of slavery to themselves; let them suffer, if their choice brings suffering; but as for us, we wash our hands in innocency, and hold ourselves guiltless of blood." And so we have been going on ever since the outbreak of slavery in the form of armed rebellion. "They are the guilty parties, let them suffer." But has all this been right? Have we had no responsibility? Is no guilt ours? We may not have owned slaves, but we may have made a common cause with men owners--may have brought condemnation upon ourselves by our tolerance, by our compromises.
Sad and almost disgraceful is the record which exhibits our complicity with this sin. We began by making free States wait at the door of the Union until slavery had a counterpoise, or balance adjusted in the form of slave State, to preserve the balance against freedom in the National Senate. We compromised the territories west of the Mississippi, by tolerating slaves there, and as one demand after another was made it was granted, till we even allowed slave rule in free States, by submitting to the Fugitive Slave law--these things could not have been done without our votes. When they threatened and blustered we fawned and cringed, until they knew and avowed their belief that the crack of a slave whip would bring the north to its knees. All they asked we granted, more than they demanded we offered. We held out our wrists for manacles. When we elected the great good man, who embodied our idea of nationality and freedom; and even after official announcement had been made of the position slavery occupied in their proposed nationalism, we guarded their slaves, and kept them secure to labor for the support of the masters who were fighting against us. When these slaves, acting on an intuition of freedom, came fleeing to us, we sent them back to chains and bondage. In all this we showed our complicity with the sin which struck the blow which killed our good President.