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

The University of Oxford

Address to his excellency the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United, States of America.

May it please your excellency: We, the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the University of Oxford, request your excellency to convey to the government and people of the United States of America the assurance of our sincere condolence, on the occasion of the appalling calamity which has recently befallen your country.

It is not the practice of this University to notice, in its corporate capacity, events which do not directly affect the well-being of our own country. But at this singular and lamentable crisis we are conscious of the full force of those recollections of the past which must at all times lead the British nation to regard with a community of interest the fortunes and destinies of a friendly and a kindred people. In accordance with these sentiments, it is the anxious desire of the university to express to your excellency the abhorrence with which we, together with the whole civilized world, regard the assassination of the President of the United States. We would also at the same time express, in common with all ranks of our countrymen, our earnest hope that by the orderings of a merciful Providence the American people may speedily enjoy the restoration of internal peace and national prosperity.

Given at our house of convocation, under the common seal, this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord God 1865.

[seal.]