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

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

Legation of the United States,
London, April 28, 1865.

No. 936.]

Sir: I had the grief to receive the day before yesterday the telegraphic despatches from Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, and from Mr. Hunter, the chief clerk of your department, announcing the afflicting event of the 14th instant, which has thrown our whole people into such deep distress. They also give a narrative of the simultaneous savage onslaught upon yourself in your sickroom, and upon your son, the Assistant Secretary, which had not at the latest date, and which I yet permit myself to hope will not prove fatal to either of you.

I immediately took the requisite measures to communicate the intelligence to the different legations on the continent.

It is but consistency that a rebellion which began in perjury, treachery, and fraud, should close with private assassination.

The whole of the day was one of the greatest excitement. Few events of the present century have created such general consternation and indignation. Many people called personally at the legation to express their deep sympathy, and many more sent me notes of the same tenor.

The notices taken by the press are almost all of them of a most honorable character. I transmit copies of the leading newspapers. There seems, at last, to be a general testimony borne to the noble qualities of the President, and the friendly disposition of the Secretary of State.

If all this eulogy be found mingled with the alloy of unworthy aspersions of the Vice-President, who succeeds, he has abundant consolation in the reflection that when his predecessor began he was not a whit better treated. It is a weakness of the press and the people of this country not to value some men properly until they are lost: the case of the late Prince Consort is a remarkable instance.

The proceedings in the two houses of Parliament last evening mark out the line proposed to be adopted by the government on this occasion.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.