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

Stirling Commissioners of Supply

Stirling, May 1, 1865.

Sir: We, the Commissioners of Supply and landed proprietors of the county of Stirling, in annual meeting assembled, wish to express to you, and through you to the people and government of America, our horror and detestation of the great crime committed in the base and cruel murder of the President of the United States.

We feel the deepest sympathy for the loss which a people so nearly connected with our own nation has sustained in the unnatural death of a ruler so good and so honest, at a time when his value had come to be so thoroughly known and so highly appreciated, not only at home, but throughout the rest of the civilized world.

We pray that God may so direct events that this dreadful crime may not prevent peace, freedom and good government from being soon established in your mighty country.

Signed, in name and by appointment of the meeting, by Alexander Graham Speirs, of Culcrench, convener of the county.

A. G. SPEIRS.

His Excellency Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, at London.