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

Commissioners of Supply of Cupar

Cupar, Fife, May 1, 1865.

Address of the commissioners of supply of the county of Fife, Scotland.

Sir: We, the commissioners of supply of the county of Fife, Scotland, in annual general meeting assembled, desire very respectfully to convey through your excellency, to the government and people of the United States of America, the horror, indignation, and sorrow with which we have heard of the atrocious acts of assassination of which the city of Washington has recently been the scene, and particularly our grief at the lamented death of President Lincoln by the hands of an assassin.

In the extremely painful and trying circumstances into which the government and people of the United States have, by such a sudden and unexpected calamity, been brought, we beg, in common with the people of this country, most warmly to tender them our profound sympathy and regard.

We beg also respectfully to request your excellency to accept, on behalf of Mrs. Lincoln and the family of the late lamented President, our heartfelt sympathy for her and them in the midst of their deep sufferings, and to express our earnest prayer that Divine help and consolation may be abundantly granted to them.

We have the honor to be your excellency’s most obedient servants.

Signed in name and by appointment of the meeting.

WHYTE MELVILLE,

Convener of the County of Fife.

His excellency Charles Francis Adams, Esq.,
Minister of the United States of America, London.