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

American Residents of London

London, May 1, 1865

At a meeting of Americans resident in London, holden at St. James’s Hall on the first day of May, 1865, his excellency Charles Francis Adams in the chair, it was resolved unanimously—

That we have heard with the greatest indignation and the most profound sorrow of the assassination which has deprived our country of its beloved Chief Magistrate, as well as of the audacious assault which has greatly perilled the lives of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of State, and that we regard the taking of the life of our chief executive officer, while our country is passing through unparalleled trials, after all loyal Americans had learned to love him, and, with good men the world over, to confide in him, and when so much of national and individual welfare and happiness depended on his existence, as the great crime of the ninteenth century, memorable in its atrocity and entailing on its perpetrator the execrations of mankind.

That we tender to Mrs. Lincoln our heartfelt sympathy and expressions of condolence in the great affliction that she and her family and the nation have sustained.

That in the long public career of Andrew Johnson, now President of the United States, the early and preeminent sacrifices he made from his devotion to the cause of the Union, and his pledges to maintain the great principles of human liberty, we have every assurance that he will faithfully prosecute to its final success the wise, humane, and statesmanlike, domestic, and foreign policy of President Lincoln.

That as loyal Americans, we have witnessed with peculiar pleasure the expressions of indignation and sorrow throughout Great Britain at the assassination of President Lincoln, and (he cordial and hearty sympathy which has been extended by the people of this realm to the government and people of the United States in this great bereavement and public calamity.

That copies of these resolutions be transmitted to the President of the United States and to Mrs. Lincoln.

R. HUNTING,

Secretary.