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

Inhabitants of Peterborough

Millfield, Peterboro’, May 13, 1865.

Sir: At a public meeting held here on the 12th instant, in the “Assembly Rooms,” which meeting was called by some working men, (although others assisted at the meeting,) “to express sympathy with the people of America in the sad loss they have sustained in the assassination of President Lincoln,” the following resolutions were unanimously passed. As secretary of the committee calling the meeting, I am requested to forward them to you, praying you to transmit them to the authorities at Washington:

Resolved, That this meeting, having heard of the assassination of President Lincoln, desires to express its profound sorrow at, and detestation of, the deed by which he was stricken down.

Resolved, That this meeting desires to condole with Mrs. Lincoln in this the hour of her sad bereavement, and would earnestly pray that God, the “husband of the widow,” may be graciously pleased to grant her the rich consolations of his grace.

Resolved, That this meeting desires to express to the people of America its deep sympathy with them in the irreparable loss they have sustained in one so wise, so honest and so generous as Abraham Lincoln, and sincerely hopes that the good work so gloriously inaugurated by him may be carried on to its final issue.

Allow me to add that the meeting, although not so numerous as it would have been but for the severity of the weather, (it had been raining incessantly during the whole of the day, and during the time of the meeting,) from 250 to 300 present, was very enthusiastic in its approval of the principles and polity of the late lamented President, and rejoiced with joy unfeigned at the overthrow of the slaveocracy of the south.

With deep sympathy for yourself in this trying moment of your country’s history,

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

H. BEECH.

Hon. Mr. Adams, &c., &c.