The same
demonstration was repeated, gaining continually in intensity of feeling
and solemn splendor of display, in every city through which the
procession passed. The reception in New York was worthy alike of the
great city and of the memory of the man they honored. The body lay in
state in the City Hall, and a half-million people passed in deep silence
before it. Here General Scott came, pale and feeble, but resolute, to
pay his tribute of respect to his departed friend and commander.
The train went up the Hudson River by night, and at every town and
village on the way vast waiting crowds were revealed by the fitful glare
of torches, and dirges and hymns were sung. As the train passed into
Ohio, the crowds increased in density, and the public grief seemed
intensified at every step westward. The people of the great central
basin were claiming their own. The day spent at Cleveland was unexampled
in the depth of emotion it brought to life. Some of the guard of honor
have said that it was at this point they began to appreciate the place
which Lincoln was to hold in history.
The last stage of this extraordinary progress was completed, and
Springfield reached at nine o'clock on the morning of May 3. Nothing had
been done or thought of for two weeks in Springfield but the
preparations for this day, and they had been made with a thoroughness
which surprised the visitors from the East.
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