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

Ryde Commissioners of Supply

Town Hall, Ryde[, May 9, 1865].

Sir: We, the Ryde commissioners, incorporated by act of Parliament, beg to express our great sorrow and indignation at the lamentable assassination of your late respected President, whereby the American nation has lost the services of an enlightened ruler and noble minded patriot.

We respectfully tender through you to his bereaved widow, and to the government and people of the United States, our heartfelt sympathy on this melancholy occasion; and we sincerely hope that the era of peace, mercy, and liberty, which your illustrious chief so happily inaugurated, may be carried by his successor to a just and satisfactory termination.

Given under our common seal, this 9th day of May, 1865.

[seal.]

THOMAS DASHWOOD,

Chairman of the Ryde Commissioners.

His Excellency Hon. C. F. Adams,
Minister of the United States to the Court of St. James.