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

Conference of the Methodist New Connection

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, June 13, 1865

To his Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States of America:

The following resolution was adopted by the sixty-ninth annual conference of the Methodist New Connection, assembled in Salem chapel, Hood street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord 1865:

Resolved, That the conference of the Methodist New Connection, assembled in Newcastle-on-Tyne, would record the expression of its devout thanksgiving and joy on the termination of the war which for four long years has been waged at so fearful a cost of human life and human treasure between the northern and southern divisions of the United States of America. While in the war itself the conference would recognize the supreme justice of eternal Providence in making a nation, however mysteriously, and by whatever means, yet ultimately and surely responsible for the legislative or social wrongs it either authorizes or countenances, it would nevertheless and equally recognize the mercy of that Providence in the conclusion to which the war has been finally conducted, in that a great nation, so intimately allied to our own in all the interests of human civilization and Christian enterprise, has been redeemed from disorder and anarchy by the triumph of the national wisdom and courage, and especially that this has been so done as effectually to annihilate the evil out of which the war really though not ostensibly sprang, restoring to the position and privileges of manhood four millions of human beings who had previously been held as mere property by those who claimed to be their owners.

The conference also desires to unite with the whole English nation, and, indeed, with the entire civilized world, in giving emphatic utterance to its horror and abhorrence of the fearful crime by which the close of the war has been signalized, in the assassination of the late much lamented President of the United States, to whose practical wisdom and singular goodness of character maybe largely attributed the continuance of the peaceful relations existing between this country and America. Amid the jealousies and perplexities which the war occasioned, as well as to whose prudence and perseverance, together with the prudence and perseverance of those united with him in the conduct of public affairs, the result now enjoyed has been happily reached.

And yet the conference would express an earnest hope that no irritation thence resulting, however natural and reasonable, will be allowed to influence the regular course of justice in dealing with those who have taken a leading part in the attempt to divide the Union, by establishing a separate confederacy, and that in fact no means will be adopted but such as will, under the superintendence of the Great Ruler, tend to conciliate the affections and interests of the parties hitherto so much divided, and so restore them to a condition of permanent harmony and peace.

Signed on behalf of the conference:

• WILLIAM BAGGARLY, President.
• JOSHUA POLLARD, Secretary.