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

Foggia Workingmen’s Mutual Aid Society

[Translation.]

Foggia, May 8, 1865.

The Workingmen’s Mutual Aid Society of Foggia to the people of the American Union.

Brothers of America: We comprehend the sorrow that afflicts you in the triumphant hour of your humane cause. When Abraham Lincoln, your glorious helmsman of liberty, was struck down by the cruel hand of a vile assassin your generous souls were filled with mourning. The sad news reaches us in Italy like the messenger of a day fatal to the destinies of a people, and every true Italian heart was saddened by its coming. Even in the humble families of the working men of Foggia the deepest grief was felt, and a shrill cry arose for the extermination of the vampires of humanity.

Brothers: be consoled by the thought that Abraham Lincoln, in the greatest trials, showed himself something more than the President of a transatlantic republic, and that the assassin’s pistol was only the instrument of the dealers in human flesh. Lincoln’s tomb with you, and Garibaldi’s misfortunes with us, will be known in history as the irrevocable decrees of reason against barbarism and tyranny; but you will let future ages know the good intentions of the two illustrious victims. Be brave, then, brothers of America, in your desolation, and defend the sepulchre where the secret of the emancipation of all the slaves in the world lies buried.

• FERDINAND CIPRO, President.
• MICHELE FIGLIOLINO, Secretary.