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

Students of Naples

Naples, undated

[Translation.]

Americans of the Union: Despotism, priestly and political, diplomatic hypocrisy, and a tradition o’blood have fettered the Italian emancipation with so many snares that we, overwhelmed with grief and disgusted with this depraved Old World, turn with confiding looks to the New one, and our souls rejoice at the grand spectacle you show us. Oh, Americans! you who have conquered your own independence by your virtue only in the sacredness of the laws constitutes oily one a free family without kings or myrmidons, without priests or deceitful idols.

We followed with our ardent wishes the titanic struggle which you have sustained against the ungodly insurrection of slaveholders. Oh! could slavery exist any longer among men as free as you are; can one be free by the side or amidst slaves? This stain you have blotted out with your blood, and with the sacrifices you have made of your men and money for the complete liberty of your country.

On the fall of Richmond the soul of the European democracy was exuberant with joy. We Italians of the south were preparing to send you a salute of congratulations, when the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, your President, filled us with grief.

Abraham Lincoln, the generous man who neither tarnished nor stained his triumph; the virtuous Cincinnatus of America, the redeemer of those men whose primitive fault was no other than the color of their skin, has been assassinated. However great is our grief, how much greater must be yours! Oh, American brothers! you who have twice confided to Abraham Lincoln the jealous deposit of power; for you have found in his honesty, his intelligence, and his patrotism the immovable rock of liberty, and certainly your cause of war was a holy one, if such a noble creature has been sacrificed, the propitiatory offering of an inexorable demon.

Americans of the Union, every one in Europe does not hold for its divinity the cotton or the sword; permit that our crowns of laurel and of myrtle go to garnish the tomb of Lincoln. Let our flowers be mixed with yours, with yours our tears, and with yours our oaths; to gratify the spirit of Lincoln for the complete destruction of slavery, we will encourage and imitate you in the battle for the redemption of humanity.

For the studious youths of Naples:

• SAVERIA FRISSIO, Deputato.
• ENRICO MARIANO, Caprice.
• GENEVOSO BOZZIUS.
• CINCOTTA ANGELO.
• CARLO IACONO.
• LORETC PAISCHE.
  And some thirty others.