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

Italian Emigration Society

[Translation]

Italian Emigration Society,
Ancona, May 4, 1865.

When a unanimous cry of sorrow arose from every corner of the earth, lamenting the tragic end of your distinguished President, Abraham Lincoln, and of execration against the authors of the atrocious crime, the Italian emigration resident in the “Marshe,” struck by such a misfortune, shared the common sorrow and covered with black crape the flag of the Tiberian wolf and Adriatic lion.

Lincoln, promulgator of liberty, defender of the rights of man, a faithful follower of the doctrine taught by the gospel, desired to banish slavery from free America, and to put and end to this stigma upon a civilized people. Seeing that any compromise with the oppressor was impossible, he was able, through the energy of his will and eloquent words, to initiate a holy war, which, owing to the valor of his soldiers and the free sacrifices of the northern people, was finished by federal victories and the planting of the holy flag of humanity upon the fortified strongholds of the slaveholders

Infamous and cowardly men! guided by fanaticism and selfishness, through the arm of an assassin struck the man of the people and benefactor of humanity, with other illustrious victims, at the very moment when the Americans were rejoicing over their triumph, believing the end of the fratricidal contest to be at hand.

Lincoln was the true friend of humanity.

Lincoln was a citizen of the whole world.

Lincoln is a martyr to a holy principle.

The Italian emigration, faithful to their principles of liberty, brotherhood, and sympathy with oppressed nations, have always followed, with great anxiety, the alternations of this war between civilization and barbarism, and rejoiced at the triumph of their brothers, while they wept over their defeats. Now, filled with the most intense sorrow at this tragic and unexpected deed, They scarcely know how to express their feelings; they can only pray God for the pacification of the United States, and for the abolition forever of the market of beings made in the image of God, that sublime object which was the aim of the illustrious martyr of whom we now lament the sudden and bloody death.

The commission charged to present this address beg you to receive and transmit it to the United States government as an expression of their friendship and sympathy.

• M. URGOLINUCCI,
• O. CERRNI,
• G. BERNARDINI,
• S. DORIA,
  Committee

The Consul General
of the United States, Florence.