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

Juvenile Politico Literary Association of Perugia

[Translation.]

To the President of the Congress of Representatives of the United States of America.

Honorarle Sir: A member of the juvenile politico literary associations of this illustrious Italian city, I have the honor to signify to you, in the name thereof, the sorrow occasioned to our hearts by the unhappy news of the assassination committed on the person of President Abraham Lincoln, in whom nature and fortune interchangeably blended to render him the man of Providence for bettering the condition of the United States of America. Our grief is not, therefore, the less great and profound than that which affects the hearts of all our free citizens, of all honest and true lovers of the progress of every people and nation in the universe. Nor was the sorrow different that was caused to us by the attempt on the life of Secretary Seward.

We have, however, most confident hope that, in compensation of the bitter grief flowing from such great calamities, the United States of America will gather in the future new acquisitions of greatness, liberty, and power, which will suffice to sustain and render lasting their civil and political existence.

In fulfilling this very sad duty, I pray you, sir, to accept the expression of the sentiments of my highest regard and consideration.

For the Politico Literary Society of Perugia.

Perugia , May 7, 1865.

PIETRO DE DONATO GIANNINI.