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

New York Historical Society.

New York, April 25, 1865

At a special meeting of the New York Historical Society, held in its hall on Tuesday evening, April 25, 1865, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted unanimously:

On the evening of Good Friday, the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States of America, was treacherously assassinated in the city of Washington.

It was the anniversary of the day on which, four years before, traitors in open arms had caused the flag of the Union to be struck from a national fortress, in the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina. The same day, under President Lincoln’s own order, that same flag was raised again on Fort Sumter, through the might of the American people. Rebellion was surrendering to the nation. In the very hour of its victory over disunion the undivided republic is called to mourn the decease of its chief servant: It is, therefore,

Resolved, That, in common with the whole country, the New York Historical Society deplores the calamity which has befallen the nation in the foul murder of an honest-minded Chief Magistrate, whose large sagacity, true love of liberty and right, patriotic devotion to the public service, approved by the affectionate voice of the people, had just been crowned by the triumph of the national arms over treason, and the near prospect of peace thoughout the land.

Resolved, That the eminent American who has thus gone down to the grave has left to his countrymen the legacy of a name forever identified with the era of the salvation of the Republic, through the destruction of slavery, and of a fame which universal history will justly record.

Resolved, That this society, cherishing the memory of President Lincoln, directs that its hall be draped in mourning.

Resolved, That attested copies of these resolutions be sent to the family of the deceased, and to the Department of State.

Extract from the minutes.

• ANDREW WARNER,
  Recording Secretary.
• JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD,
  Domestic Corresponding Secretary.