Departure of Mr. Lincoln for Washington.
Mr. Lincoln left Springfield, Ill., on the 11th inst., on a tour which is to end at Washington City. About one thousand persons assembled to witness his departure. A dispatch says:‘ He took his station in the waiting room, and allowed his friends to pass by him and take his hand for the last time. His face was pale, and quivered with emotion so deep as to render him almost unable to utter a single word. At eight o'clock precisely he was conducted to the cars by the editors of the Journal. After exchanging a parting salutation with his wife, he took his stand on the platform, removed his hat, and, asking silence, spoke as follows to the crowd that stood in respectful silence and with their heads uncovered:
My Friends--No one not in my situation can appreciate my feelings of sadness at this parting. To this place and to the kindness of these people I owe everything; here I have been a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young man to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether I ever may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him I cannot succeed, with this assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. In that same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. To his care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
As he turned to enter the cars three cheers were given, and a few seconds afterwards the train moved slowly out of the sight of the silent gathering.
’
The Presidential Cortege.
The following gentlemen compose the party: A. Lincoln, R. T. Lincoln, his son; John Hay, Secretary; Major Hunter, U. S. A.; Col. Ward H. Lamar, aid to Gov. Yates, and Col. Ellsworth, of the Chicago Zouaves.Dr. W. H. Wallace accompanies the party as the physician of the President. Col. Sumner did not reach Springfield in time, but will join the party at Indianapolis:
At Tolono, Ill., the train was greeted with cannon firing and cheering. In response to the cheers, Mr. Lincoln appeared upon the platform and said:
‘ I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, attended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it--
‘"Behind the cloud the sun is still shining."’ I bid you an affectionate farewell.
Mr. Lincoln continues reserved and thoughtful, and stays most of the time alone in the private saloon prepared for his special use.
The invitation of the New Jersey Legislature to Mr. Lincoln to visit Trenton, has been accepted, and the ‘"President elect"’ goes there on Wednesday next.
On the arrival of the train at Indianapolis Monday afternoon, nearly 20,000 persons were congregated to greet Mr. Lincoln. He spoke from the balcony of the Bates House, from a manuscript prepared at Springfield, as follows:
"Fellow-Citizens of the State of Indiana: I am here to thank you much for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the very generous support given by your State to that political cause which I think is the true and just cause of the whole country and the whole world. Solomon says, ‘"There is a time to keep silence;"’ and when men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that they mean the same thing while using the same word, it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence. The words ‘"coercion"’ and ‘"invasion "’ are much used in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the exact definitions of these words, not from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of the words. What, then, is ‘"coercion?"’ What is ‘"invasion?"’--Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent towards them, be invasion? I certainly think it would be ‘"coercion,"’ also, if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any or all these things be ‘"invasion"’ or ‘"coercion?"’ Do our professed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these on the part of the United States would be coercion or invasion of a State? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their great affection would seem to be exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for it to swallow.--In their view the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of ‘"free love"’ arrangement, to be maintained on passional attraction. By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State? I speak not of the position assigned to a State in the Union by the Constitution, for that by the bond we all recognize. That position, however, a State cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself. If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in extent of territory and equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county? Would an exchange of names be an exchange of rights? Upon principle, on what rightful principle may a State, being no more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the nation and then coerce a proportionably larger sub-division of itself in the most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country with its people by merely calling it a State? Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting anything. I am merely asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell."
’ All the evening the vestibule and parlors and stairways were crammed so much by outsiders as to obstruct altogether the movements of the guests. Nothing else promising to satisfy the crowd, an impromptu reception was opened in the main parlor at seven o'clock.--The members of the Legislature were first presented, then the committees of escort from Cincinnati and Columbus, and at last a shake of the President's hand was granted to all that desired to take it. No less than three thousand ladies and gentlemen filed past their Presidential victim. The reception continued until 9 o'clock, when the President's weariness induced him to retire from the public gaze, although the rush continued unabated.
