Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part IV, Appendix to diplomatic correspondence of 1865; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late president of the United States of America, and the attempted assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward, Assistant Secretary, on the evening of the 14th of April, 1865; expressions of condolence and sympathy inspired by these events

Minister of Great Britain

Her Britannic Majesty’s Legation,
Bogota, June 20, 1865.

Sir: I have this moment had the honor to receive your excellency’s note of this day’s date, by which you announce to me the melancholy intelligence of the death of the President of the United States of America, in the city of Washington, on the morning of the 15th of April last.

In stating your belief that this sad announcement would awaken within me feelings of sincere sympathy, your excellency has truly interpreted my sentiments. No one, indeed, could have heard with more profound grief, with greater horror and indignation than I, the intelligence of the fearful calamity by which the United States has been deprived of its illustrious Chief Magistrate. It is, therefore, with a mournful satisfaction that I avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded me to give utterance to these feelings, and at the same time to convey to your excellency the expression of my heartfelt condolence.

I need not add that, in compliance with your request, and as a tribute of respect to the memory of the illustrious dead, I shall cause the British flag to be displayed to-morrow from this legation.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your excellency’s most obedient humble servant,

CHARLES O’LEARY.

His Excellency Mr. Allan A. Burton,
Minister Resident of the United States of America, &c., &c., &c.,