Bremen Senate
[Translation.]
The Senate of the city of Bremen to President Johnson.
The appalling news of the atrocious deed which brought to so sudden an end the life and labors of President Lincoln has caused horror and indignation wherever it has gone, but perhaps nowhere in a higher degree than in our city, whose citizens have ever since the first foundation of the American Union maintained with its people uninterrupted friendly relations of commerce and personal intercourse, and which at the present time has more numerous connections, comparatively, with the great transatlantic republic than any other state of the European continent.
Indeed the loss which the government and people of the United States have sustained by the hand of a fanatical assassin is felt the same as a public calamity in our midst, and it is this universal sentiment of deep sorrow and indignation which prompts us, the representatives of the Bremen republic, to express to your excellency, as the successor of President Lincoln, the feelings of hearty sympathy with which we in common with all our citizens regard this severe visitation upon your country.
May Almighty God, who, in His inscrutable providence, has permitted the commission of this awful crime, avert a similar calamity from the United States in all future time, and may He by His richest blessings heal the wounds from which the Union is suffering, and crown by an early peace the patriotic labors in which Abraham Lincoln has died as a martyr.
We avail ourselves of this mournful occasion to commend ourselves, and the republic which we have the honor of representing, to the friendly consideration [Page 424] of your excellency, and to express to you our sentiments of distinguished esteem and regard.
The senate of the free Hanseatic city of Bremen.
His Excellency the President
of the United States, Washington, D. C.