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

Conference of French Pastors

[Translation.]

Paris, May 9, 1865.

Copy of an extract of the proceedings of a conference of the pastors, ministers and elders of the national churches of France.

The pastors, ministers and elders of the two national churches of France, (Reformed Church and Church of the Confession of Augsburg,) united in conference on the occasion of the annual religious meeting, and justly moved at the catastrophe which has taken away from the United States their pious and wise President, experience the need of expressing to their brethren of the United States their profound horror at the assassination of their glorious President, and at the attempt on the life of his eminent minister, Mr. Seward, and their hopes that the great citizen who presided over the destinies of America may have, in his successor, a worthy follower of his generous and Christian enterprise.

This expression of their sincere sympathy will be presented to his excellency the minister of the United States at Paris by the president, the vice-president, and the secretaries of the conference.

Paris, April, 27, 1865.

A true copy:

H. BLAWE,

One of the Secretaries.

His Excellency the Minister of the United States of America.