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

Clement Friendship Lodge

[Translation.]

Clement Friendship Lodge,
Paris, May 14, 1865.

Sir: Impressed with profound grief for the death of Abraham Lincoln, this lodge has unanimously decided to assume mourning for the space of three months.

Pursuant to this vote, taken at the session on the 4th of May, instant, it was decreed as follows:

• The banner shall remain draped in mourning three months;
• The officers shall wear crape on their insignia;
• A mortuary salvo shall he fired at each session.

Please remit to your countrymen this expression of our regret for the immense loss we have all sustained.

We masons mourn him, not only as a brother, but as a friend of the whole human race. His name will live, not only as the symbol of the abolition of slavery, but it will remain as the highest expression of that spirit of justice which is the foundation of every social edifice.

Four years of rude experience and terrible vicissitudes could not stagger his faith in the progress of human liberty and in the justice of the principle of the equality of races.

As right and victory coincided, not an unjust act tarnished the holy cause during his patriotic life. Lincoln’s first thought was the mason’s motto: fraternity. His last act was pardon, forgetfulness.

People of the American Union may his generous blood be the last to flow in the saintly cause of liberty! Be assured the great soul of him who was your chief will rejoice if, using his clemency after victory, you will cause the spirit of integrity, of which he has set the example, to prevail throughout the entire land.

Please, sir, make known our sentiments of condolence to the bereaved widow and family of the great citizen whom we all regret.

Accept the assurance of our high consideration.

BÉRINGER,

Master of the Clement Friendship Lodge. By order of the lodge:

CHOTARD,

Chief Secretary.

Mr. Bigelow,
United States Minister in Paris.