Señor Alvaro Covarrubias to Mr. Nelson
[Translation.]
Sir: The government of the republic has been penetrated by grief as sincere as profound in receiving the melancholy intelligence of the crime which has just snatched from the United States their Chief Magistrate and one of their most illustrious sons.
This sad occurrence is a just motive of grief, not only for the country which that eminent citizen governed liberally and wisely, but also for all those nations which, like Chili, accompanied him with their prayers and sympathies in the cause of liberty and civilization, which he has not expired without leaving triumphant, and which he sustained for more than four years with incomparable wisdom and perseverance.
President Lincoln is no more; but the beneficent results of the victory obtained under his glorious government will be sufficiently imperishable to immortalize his name. Beautiful privilege of free nations, whose works are not chained to the life of one man, be he ever so great!
As a free and republican people, as a sincere friend of the United States, Chili has a double right to consider as her own, and to fraternally share, the grief which bows down the generous nation of which your excellency is the worthy representative.
My government believes itself the faithful interpreter of the sentiments of the country in expressing its own, and in offering, through the medium of your excellency, to the government and people of the United States its most profound sympathy and sorrow for the grave calamity with which God, in his inscrutable designs, has permitted the resignation and energy of that great republic to be put to proof.
As far as regards myself personally, I sympathize with my heart with the grief which oppresses the mind of your excellency, and avail myself of this sad opportunity to reiterate to you the testimony of my most distinguished consideration and regard.
Your excellency’s most obedient servant,
The Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary
of the United States of North America.