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chapter twenty-three THE MID-WEEK SABBATH At noon on April 19, the doors to the White House were closed, and the formal funeral for Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States, began. Because of space limitations in the East Room, only a relatively small group of individuals could be accommodated. In the twenty-four hours preceding the official ceremony, however, an estimated thirty thousand citizens had passed the body while it lay in state.1 Few anticipated such numbers, or the mania of the people to gain a glimpse of the murdered president. The “rush & jam” to enter was so great, in fact, that guards were hard-pressed to hold the crowds back.2 Into this crush of all ages, sexes, and races, “we were obliged to force our way,” wrote Helen McCalla in her diary: Ladies fainted near us, and children screamed, and a violent shower marred the scene, but we had to endure it, being—to say the truth—determined to enter the President’s House, after waiting for over two hours near the gate. . . . Upon entering, we marched in a slow, silent procession through the Reception Room, into the East Room, where the remains were lying in state, but we were not permitted to wait a moment near the corpse, so that it was impossible to obtain a satisfactory view.3 What little the viewers did see of the late American leader was generally agreeable and what many had hoped to see. Gone were the protruding eyes that nearly sprang from their sockets; also mercifully missing was the ghastly discoloration of the face. The president, noted Orville Browning, looked “as natural as life, and [as] if in a quiet sleep.”4 Most others, such as a correspondent for the New York World, also thought Lincoln lay as if resting. “The hue is rather bloodless and leaden; but he was always sallow,” the journalist noted. “The dark eye187 188 the darkest dawn brows seem abruptly arched. . . . The mouth is shut, like that of one who had put the foot down firm, and so are the eyes, which look as calm as slumber.”5 Unlike others who gazed upon the “sleeping” figure, the New York correspondent spoke with embalmers and knew that the present image was but an illusion: There is now no blood in the body; it was drained by the jugular vein and sacredly preserved, and through a cutting on the inside of the thigh the empty blood-vessels were charged with a chemical preparation which soon hardened to the consistency of stone. The long and bony body is now hard and stiff, so that beyond its present position it cannot be moved any more than the arms or legs of a statue. . . . The scalp has been removed, the brain scooped out, the chest opened and the blood emptied. All this we see of Abraham Lincoln, so cunningly contemplated in this splendid coffin, is a mere shell, an effigy, a sculpture. He lies in sleep, but it is the sleep of marble.6 At length, public viewing of the body was reportedly cut short when it became known that the continual shuffling of feet below had so crazed Mary Lincoln that she did not even recognize her little son, Tad.7 Nor was Mary present when the funeral services began at noon in the East Room. Although there were numerous flowers and floral arrangements, which gave the room a fresh smell, music was noticeably lacking. Additionally , the room was so heavily festooned with black material that to some the affair seemed oppressively somber.8 Among the political and military men attending—including the normally unkempt General Grant, now looking odd in his dress uniform—only the foreign dignitaries , resplendent in colorful, courtly costumes, disturbed a scene dominated by black.9 Although several ministers, including Dr. Gurley from Lincoln’s church, joined to eulogize the late president, the services were kept short and simple. As a result, many were emotionally moved. While tears trickled down the weathered face of Grant, Robert Lincoln sobbed quietly nearby, his face buried in a handkerchief.10 By 2 p.m., when all had viewed the body—including the new president , who gazed reflectively down for a few minutes—the casket was carried from the White House by Grant, Admiral David Farragut, the new vice president, Lafayette Foster, and other pallbearers.11 Amid the sounds of booming minute guns and tolling bells, the funeral cortege [3.149.26.246] Project MUSE (2024...

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