The True Origin Of Funeral Eulogies

Publish date: 2024-05-07

George Washington died on December 14, 1799, with over 400 eulogies delivered in his honor through February 22, 1800 (via Mount Vernon). People from all walks of life, including from marginalized voices, spoke affectionately of him. The Reverend Richard Allen, a former slave and one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, spoke of Washington's intentions to free his slaves after his death. Allen stated (via Mount Vernon), "[T]o us he has been the sympathizing friend and tender father. He has watched over us, and viewed our degraded and afflicted state with compassion and pity — his heart was not insensible to our sufferings."

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave a eulogy that is one of the most memorable forms of American rhetoric in history. In the Gettysburg Address, he succinctly memorialized the many soldiers who died in the Civil War, saying (via National Park Service) the deceased should not have perished "in vain," and that the speech was "for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."

When Lincoln was assassinated, many Americans would express publicly their grief (via The Library of America). One famous eulogy was composed and delivered by Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and orator. Douglass had met Lincoln twice in his life and delivered his eulogy at Cooper Union. Unlike white mourners, Black mourners were not easily afforded the opportunity to eulogize the president, so many of them felt aligned with their values. Douglass asked that whites who lamented the president's death to follow his example.

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