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

Irish Residents of London

His Excellency Hon. Charles F. Adams:

Sir: We, on behalf of our countrymen resident here, hasten to render, through you, to the American people, our profound sympathy with them under the heavy affliction they have sustained in being deprived of their deeply lamented and much beloved President.

We fondly hoped that he would have enjoyed for the full term that position and those honors which a grateful country had conferred on him, and that, in the increased happiness and prosperity of the United States, he would have seen the desires of his great and generous soul realized and continued on a scale commensurate with the high destiny and splendid fortunes of the American republic.

It must be consoling, under this bereavement, to recall that it was reserved for him to see his country emerge, great and glorious, from the perils which menaced her existence as a nation, and thus disappoint the anticipations of those who desired her dismemberment.

We feel proud that our countrymen have contributed to this great result, and proved, by their fidelity and heroism, that valor and gratitude are among the many virtues which Irishmen cultivate and extend to their friends and benefactors in whatever position they may be placed, whether in social or military life.

As good citizens, they have been true to the national cause, and we refer, with especial satisfaction, to those among them whose names will enter into the history of your great republic, associated with its principles, hallowed by its sacrifices, and identified with its glory.

We beg you, sir, to be the interpreter of our feelings to the American people, and to assure them that our attachment has been unalterable, neither springing from expediency nor inspired by self-interest, but that it is the warm impulse of a people whose generous sensibilities are among the most prominent of their national characteristics.

Signed on behalf of a meeting of the Irishmen of London, held at the Arundel Hall, Arundel street, Strand, on Monday, the 1st of May, 1865.

• O’DONOHUE, M P.,
• JOHN FRANCIS O’DONNELL.
• RICHARD ARCHER
• WILLIAM DOYLE.
• MOHERT E. MANAY.
• P. B. HALL.
• WALTER MEADE O’DWYER.
• FRANCIS SCAMELL.
• JAMES WILLIAM GILLIGAN.
• FRANCIS JOSEPH MORAN.
• C. SAVAN DUFFY.