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

British and Foreign Antislavery Society of London

London, May 5, 1865

At a general meeting of the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, held at No. 27 New Broad street, E. C. London, on Friday, the 5th day of May, 1865, the following resolution was unanimously adopted, and the secretary was instructed to forward to the Hon. C. F. Adams, United States minister in London, copies of the same for transmission to Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, and to Mrs. Lincoln.

resolution.

The committee desire to record the feelings of dismay and sorrow with which they had heard of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and of the murderous attempt upon the life of his colleague, the Hon. W. H. Seward. While they regard these crimes as unparalled in atrocity, deserving, as indeed they have justly excited, universal reprobation, they consider that the peculiar circumstances under which they were perpetrated remove them out of the category of ordinary crimes, and give them a deplorable prominence as the natural manifestations of the execrable system of slavery directed against the exponents of a policy of freedom.

The committee deem it especially their duty to bear their testimony in appreciation of the high qualities which distinguished Abraham Lincoln as the ruler of a great people, who during a season of unprecedented difficulty consistently adhered to principles which have happily been accepted by the nation, and in their application will secure the liberty of four millions of our fellow-creatures, held oppressed and degraded in the very worst form of bondage. As the emancipator of the slaves in the United States, Abraham Lincoln is entitled to the gratitude of all mankind.

The committee, in condoling with the people of the United States on the occasion of the signal loss they have sustained in the sudden removal of their late President, would express the confident hope that they will remain steadfast to the policy of emancipation, to the steady development of which his life was consecrated, and to which he fell a martyr, and will strengthen the hands of his successor to pursue the same noble course. They also fervently trust, that in the high and responsible position which Andrew Johnson, now President, has been called to fill, he may be guided by the wisdom which cometh from above; that he may be endowed with the forbearance which tempereth justice with mercy, and be spared to bring to a happy and peaceful consummation the work Abraham Lincoln began.

The committee would further express their profound sympathy with the family of Abraham Lincoln, under the bereavement which bows them down with grief. At such a solemn time they will derive consolation from the worldwide manifestation of sorrow and regret which the violent death of him who was their head has elicited, and will be strengthened to bear up against this grievous calamity, and be cheered by the reflection that he and his descendants will bear an honored name, which the ever-increasing multitudes of a once down-trodden race will hold enshrined in their hearts to be transmitted to remotest posterity, as that of one of the greatest benefactors of mankind.

• SAMUEL GURNEY,
  President.
• EDMUND STURGE,
  Chairman of Committee.
• L. A. CHAMERORZOW,
  Secretary.