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

Straight Line Lodge

April 29, 1865

[Translation.]

Union, solidity, strength, fraternity. Scotch Lodge, No. 146, The Right Line. Extract from the minutes of the session of April 29, 1865, of the lodge called The Straight Line.

The Free Masons of this lodge, in the Orient of Paris, unanimously decide to send an address to the citizen Vice-President of the United States, in expression of the profound indignation of all true friends of liberty and human merit at the odious crime that has deprived a great nation of one of her most noble sons.

The name of Abraham Lincoln is indelibly impressed in the memory of all men; and the Free Masons of the Eight Line express a wish that his blood, in flowing for the human race, may give life to the germ of liberty, that liberty to which Abraham Lincoln devoted his life, and for which he died.

The brethren of the Eight Line, moreover, give expression to the confidence they have in the prosperity of the great republic that has fought so bravely for the abolition of slavery.

NENE,

Secretary.

This is an authentic extract.