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 Dover

We, the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Dover, in the county of Kent, in council assembled, desire to record our deep regret at the melancholy and untimely end of the late President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. We regard with horror and detestation the diabolical crime by which his life was sacrificed to the remorseless weapon of a dastardly assassin, at a time, too, when the position of the great republic over which the President ruled seemed especially to require the guiding hand of one who had become thoroughly acquainted with the circumstances of the nation.

We have marked with much pleasure the profound wisdom, unwearying assiduity, and temperate zeal which have characterized the career of the late President during his term of office, and through all the trying circumstances in which he has been placed; and we have greatly admired the manner in which he has used the successes of his victorious armies for the advancement of the cause of peace.

We beg, therefore, respectfully to offer our most sincere and earnest sympathy to his bereaved and sorrowing widow, to his family, and to the President government, and people of the United States, under the great calamity which has befallen them.

Given under our corporate seal in our council chamber this 3d day of May, 1865.

[seal.]

W. R. MURRAY,

Mayor.