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

Society of the Founders of the Independence of Peru.

[Translation.]

Lima, May 23, 1865,
and the 44th year of the independence and the 41st of the republic.

Liberty, equality, fraternity.

Sir: The deplorable event which has moved the entire continent, drawing from it a cry of sincere grief, could not fail to be felt also by the “Society of the Founders of the Independence of Peru,” over which I have the honor to preside, covering with mourning the heart of each one of its members. In the midst of the terrible illusions which have passed over our age-whitened heads it was a pleasing consolation that in the front of the American Union there existed so indefatigable a champion of liberty, Abraham Lincoln, whom entire humanity has seen during four years sustaining the most noble and sacred of causes. So energetic a chief would have been already sufficiently great by the excellent endowments of his heart, by the magnanimity and firmness of his republican principles, and by the elevation of the sacred cause of liberty which Providence confided to his inspirations, but it was necessary that so elevated a figure should shine through ages with the lustre of martyrdom, and destiny has been employed in realizing this mysterious work, snatching him suddenly from the arms of his family and his people.

Death has been able to carry off an apostle and a genius, but his teaching will survive,, because it is the law of good causes to triumph and exist with an immortal life. Unfortunate he who so obtuse as not to see that the cause of liberty is made now more firm than ever since the illustrious blood of the most generous of martyrs has made it fertile.

We hope, then, full of faith, that for the good of these people and of entire humanity, there will be fulfilled the immortal destinies of that great and opulent nation on which the world looks with astonishment; meanwhile, sharing in the grief which oppresses all Americans, with the sincerity with which apostles of the same doctrine and relatives of the same family ought to do, we pray to God not to extinguish that faith, and that by it He will give to the illustrious victim the reward of his virtues on the majestic throne of his glory. The cause of liberty will have in heaven one who pleads for it, after having valorously sustained it before an astonished world.

The society charges me with transmitting to your excellency the expression of these sentiments; and in doing it, adding the proposition presented by one of its worthy members and unanimously approved, and as a fraternal resolution, it is pleasing to me to offer to your excellency the personal assurances of my greatest respect and consideration, as your obedient, attentive, and true servant.

ESTANISLAO CORREA Y GARAY.

His Excellency Señor Christopher Robinson,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of North America, &c., &c., &c.