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

Municipal Council of Dorchester

Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
United States Minister at the Court of St. James:

Sir: We, the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Dorchester, in the county of Dorset, in council assembled, beg to approach your excellency with an expression of our deepest indignation and horror at the recent murder of the President of the United States of America, and the attempted assassination of Mr. Secretary Seward under circumstances of unheard of atrocity, and we desire through you to offer to Mrs. Lincoln our respectful and heartfelt condolence under her sad and awful bereavement; to Mr. Seward our sincere congratulations at his providential escape; and to him and the American people our genuine sympathy with them at the loss of a ruler of whom Americans were so justly proud.

Given under the common seal of the borough of Dorchester the 2d day of May, 1865.

[seal.]

JOHN PETTY ALDRIDGEHED,

Mayor.