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

Preston Anti-slavery Society

Preston, undated

Address of the Preston Anti-Slavery Society.

To Mrs. Lincoln:

Madam: We desire not to invade the privacy of domestic sorrow—a sorrow into the agony and solitude of which only one—the Divine Comforter—can and does fully enter—but we wish to assure you of our sincere and deep sympathy by which, in some degree, we share your grief, and of our earnest hope that you may be sustained in this time of bitter trial by the memory of the Christian character and noble life of the late Mr. Lincoln, as also by the universal sympathy which his untimely loss has excited, by the general tribute already offered to his wisdom and nobility as the Chief Magistrate of the American republic, and, above all, by that religious faith which he so truly manifested, and which sheds upon his grave the light of a better hope exclaiming: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; yea, saith the spirit, for they rest from their labors and their works do follow them.”

Signed for and in behalf of the Preston Anti-Slavery Society:

• JNO. McKEAN, President.
• ROBT. BENSON, Treasurer.
• SARAH J. CLEMESLIA,
• EDWIN COX,
  Honorary Secretaries.