The Capitol Dome

L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 26 from a perpendicular above them, crept silently in two dark lines across the pavement of the rotunda, forming an ellipse around the coffin and joining as they advanced toward the eastern portal and disappeared." Perhaps some of the mourn- ers were reluctant to leave the building, as one New York Times reporter observed; "The people clung to their friend with tenacity, and their silent homage was deep and tearful." 46 e following day, before seven a.m., a smaller cortege of military officers and government officials returned to the Capitol to transport Lincoln to the train station for the start of his journey from Washington to his burial site in Spring- field, Illinois. e funeral train (figs. 6 and 7) stopped in Balti- more, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and New York before turning west. 47 While thousands more viewed his subsequent lying in states, and accompanying catafalques, no other city rivaled the splendor of the Pennsylvania Avenue procession, nor the Capitol's drapes of mourning. *** "Abraham Lincoln came here untried, unpopular, and almost despised among Washington people," the New York Times reporter noted at Lincoln's departure. But now "his body, as it goes forth from the gates of the city, is the recipient of an homage and devotion unexampled in the history of the nation." Indeed, sometime between the East Room funeral and Capitol's lying in state, Lincoln became a "sacred symbol," as the "unanimity and depth of feeling, the decorum, good order, and complete success of all the arrangements" marked "the obsequies of ABR AHAM LINCOLN." 48 e press both observed and promoted the creation of this sacred symbol. eir testimonies ensured that his funeral, pro- cession, and burial service would be long remembered "or read of in history." In 1865, the Washington Chronicle reporter pre- dicted as much: "the present generation" and "those who come after us" will recall the events following Lincoln's death with "regret and pride . . . regret at the distressing manner of the death of so great and good a benefactor of his country, and pride in the ample demonstrations of respect and gratitude for his services." JANE ARMSTRONG HUDIBURG, M.A., is the Student Programs Coordinator for the Maryland General Assembly and a freelance writer, specializing in the history of the Senate and congressional biographies. She has been published in the Washington Post Magazine and several reference books, including The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Formerly, she worked as a tour guide for the Capitol Guide Service, as a writer/researcher for the U.S. Senate Historical Office, and as an American history college instructor. Fig. 8. Lincoln's body was transported in the President's car, seen here in a photograph before it was used as the funeral car.

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