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

Mr. Bechtel to President Johnson

New York, June 5, 1865.

Sir: The undersigned, consul general of the government of his Serene Highness the Duke of Brunswick, has been specially instructed to convey to you the sentiments aroused in the minds of the authorities, and of all classes of the people of the duchy, by the atrocious murder of your illustrious predecessor, the lamented Abraham Lincoln, and by the deep loss thus entailed upon the United States. The inestimable qualities uniting in the character of the deceased—his pervading humanity and his lofty sense of right—the indomitable energy with which he sustained all the vicissitudes of a sanginuary civil war, outlived all sacrifices, and eventually triumphed over all obstacles in the restoration of the blessings of civil order to his distracted country, as well as the mild and conciliatory disposition so nobly manifested at the approaching close of the struggle, have gained him the warm regard and esteem of the civilized world, and will embalm his memory in the affectionate reverence of coming generations.

May the peace now vouchsafed to your republic be as lasting, and the prosperity which now dawns upon its future as unbroken, as even the great heart of the departed patriot could have desired.

I have the honor to be, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. J. BECHTEL.

Andrew Johnson, President of the United States.