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

Inhabitants of Devizes

Devizes, May 9, 1865

Resolutions passed at a meeting held at the Town Hall, Devizes.

At a public meeting held at the Town Hall, Devizes, on Tuesday, the 9th May, 1865, the mayor in the chair—

It was moved by the Rev. S. S. Pugh, seconded by W. Brown, esq., and Resolved, That this meeting takes the earliest convenient opportunity of following the example of the two houses of Parliament, and of the representative council of certain larger towns, in expressing a deep-felt sorrow at the assassination of the President of the United States; regarding it as a crime of astounding magnitude, fraught with manifest evil, not only to the great commonwealth with which we have long held friendly relations, but in all its attendant features, especially in the dastardly mode of its consummation, as quite unparalleled in modern times; and that as Englishmen, possessing an instinctive abhorrence of assassination, our sympathies are in the present case peculiarly called forth by the circumstance that the victim of this pitiless murder was one whose honest boast it was that his origin, language, and blood were British, and whose avowed sentiments as towards this country were cordially pacific.

It was moved by R. W. Briggs, esq., LL.D., seconded by S. Wittey, esq., and

Resolved, That we warmly sympathize with the citizens of the United States, who are thus at a critical juncture deprived of their Chief Magistrate, and in an especial manner with Mrs. Lincoln, and the other members of the late President’s family, on the blow that has so suddenly and appallingly fallen upon them.

It was moved by the Rev. R. Dawson, and

Resolved, That our abhorrence at the attempted assassination of the American Secretary of State, and his attendants, in all its atrocious and frightful incidents, is scarcely less than at its fellow outrage: the higher rank of the latter in the scale of crime being derived from its combining Treason with foul murder, and that we hereby tender our kindliest sympathies to the honorable Mr. Sward, and the afflicted members of his household.

Moved by Edward Waylen. esq., seconded by the Rev. S S. Pugh. and

Resolved, That we tender to the citizens of the United States our best wishes for their prosperity and happiness as a nation, sprung from the same stock as ourselves and following the mother country in removing from their midst the dark stain of slavery; while in the enlightened sentiments so promptly and frankly expressed by their present President, Mr. Andrew Johnson, to her Majesty’s minister plenipotentiary at Washington, viz: “That the friendship of the United States towards Great Britain is enjoined by every consideration of interest and sentiment,” we are pleased to recognize a guarantee of that pacific and mutually advantageous relationship which has for so long a period marked the intercourse of the two countries.

It was proposed by Mr. Hart, seconded by Mr. H. Knight, and

Resolved, That the worshipful the mayor be requested to send a copy of the foregoing resolutions to Mr. Adams, to be forwarded to his government and to Mrs. Lincoln.