Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward
Sir: I am in receipt of your despatch No. 204, relating to the replies to be made to the expressions of condolence and sympathy called forth in France by the assassination of our late President. In pursuance of your request that I would convey to the proper party in each case in which the communication had been addressed to or intended for the President, our government, the State Department, or the people at large, the grateful acknowledgments of the government and people of the United States for the neighborly and fraternal spirit, in such terms as my judgment might suggest, I have addressed the communication, of which enclosure No. 1 is a copy, and enclosure No. 2 a translation, to the following persons, mutatis mutandis:
Mr. Viennet, of the French Academy, grand master of Scotch masonry in France; M. Neno, master of the Lodge La Ligne Droite; M. Perrot, master of the Lodge La Bonne Foi; M. Gary, master of the Lodge Orion; Reverend Descombaz, president of the Evangelical Alliance of Lyons; Henri Carle, president of the Alliance Religieuse Universelle; L. Pelatte, vice-consul of the United States at Nice, representing the American residents at that city; M. Viollier, vice-consul of the United States at Lyons, who transmitted the address of the democrats of Lyons; M. C. Davisson, United States consul at Bordeaux, who transmitted the address of the citizens of Pau; M. P. Leconte, delegate of La Jeunesse Francaise.
Of the whole list of letters these were the only ones which were not, as I supposed, sufficiently acknowledged by me immediately upon their receipt. I did not send these replies to you when the letters were forwarded, for the want of force in my office at that time to prepare them, but I now have the honor to transmit to you copies of all these replies in the annexed enclosure No. 3.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
[For the addresses, &c, above referred to, see Appendix, separate volume.]
[Enclosure No. 2.—Translation of No. 1.]
Sir: I am instructed by his excellency the President of the United States to acknowledge the receipt of the touching note you were pleased to address to him on the occasion of our late national bereavement.
The President has been deeply affected by the fraternal and sympathetic spirit which this distressing event has awakened in every quarter of the globe. He accepts it as one of the precious results contemplated by Providence in permitting our national capital to become the theatre of a crime in many respects of unparalleled atrocity.
If the world needed some new and signal illustration of the folly of assassination as a political agency, it would be difficult to select an event from all history better calculated for such a purpose than that which raised President Lincoln to the dignity of a martyr, and filled the whole civilized world with grief and dismay.
I pray you to accept the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
To______________.
Mr. Bigelow to Rev. Mr. Descombaz.
(3d category, No. 3.)
Mr. President: I have received your touching and sympathetic address to the President of the United States, and shall experience a sad satisfaction in transmitting it to him. The horrible crime which has called him to succeed to the first martyr in the list of our Presidents will make him especially thankful for your sympathies and your prayers.
The deep emotion which our national mourning has everywhere excited, and particularly in France, proves that the assassin who has deprived us of the precious counsels of President Lincoln has given to him the immortality of the martyr, and forever placed before us this rare example of Christian courage and patriotism.
I beg you, sir, to accept for yourself and your reverend colleagues the assurances of my deep veneration.
The Pastor Mr. S. Descombaz, President of the Evangelical Alliznce of Lyons.
(3d category, No. 14.)
Mr. Bigelow to Prince Napoleon
MONSEIGNEUR: I am sensibly touched by the expressions of sympathy which your Highness has had the goodness to address to me. If anything could allay our great national grief it would certainly be the abundant proofs which reach me from all parts of France that the loss we have just suffered is deplored by all those who know how to appreciate that which is great, which is noble, which is pure.
I shall hasten to transmit this kind expression of the sympathy of your Highness to the afflicted widow and other members of the family of our deceased President, who have the first right to the consolations which such a testimonial can give.
I have the honor to be, with most profound respect, your Highness’s most humble and most obedient servant,
Monseigneur the Prince Napoleon.
(3d category, No. 52.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Isoard
Sir: I thank you heartily for the sympathy you have pleased to show towards my country and its government on the occasion of the calamity which has just stricken them so cruelly.
Accept, I pray you, sir, the assurance of my distinguished respects.
Mr. E. Isoard.
(3d category, No. 51.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Delbetz
Sir: I am sensibly affected by the very cordial letter which you have pleased to address to me on the occasion of the horrible crime which has struck down our President, Mr. Lincoln. Nothing, in my view of it, can more contribute to strengthen the very cordial relations which unite our two nations than the evidences of sympathy emanating from such men as you. Please accept, sir, the assurance of my most distinguished and cordial respect.
M. Delbetz.
(3d category, No. 29.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Marais
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated April 16, and tio thank you for the sympathy for my country and its government, of which you are pleased to send me the expression on the occasion of the horrible crime which has so cruelly wounded us in the person of President Lincoln.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my most distinguished sentiments.
To Mr. Marais.
Similar letters were addressed to Messrs. Guggernot, aine, (3d category, No. 46;) Dalibelle, (3d category, No. 12;) Simille, (3d category, No. 50;) Dugit, (3d category, No. 49;) Rey, (3d category, No. 19;) Delestre, (3d category, No. 48;) Leborgne, (3d category, No. 39;) Dr. Bonifas, (3d category, No. 45:) Lemassou, fils, (3d category, No. 16;) Hénat, (3d category, No. 15;) Mexal, (3d category, No. 54;) S. M. Remale, (3d category, No. 40;) Lanaux, (3d category, No. 36;) P. Ionain, (3d category, No. 20;) P. Leconte, (3d category, No. 22;) P. Griel, (3d category, No. 60;) A. Rivière, (3d category, No. 43;) G. Descottes, (1st category, No. 7;) A. Schiegars, (3d category, No. 22;) I. B. Thurges, (1st category, No. 13;) H. Carle, (1st category, No. 1;) Campadelli, (1st category, No. 61;) Chaube, (1st category, No. 57;) Cherrier, (1st category, No. 66;) Banet Rivet, (3d category, No. 35;) Imbert, (3d category, No. 33;) Comte de Douchet, (3d category, No. 34.)
(3d category, No. 13.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Niquet
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated May 1, second anniversary of the National Union of Commerce and Industry, of which you are president.
I thank you sincerely for the very sympathizing resolution of which you send me the text, and will be greatly obliged to you to express to your colleagues how much I have been touched by this cordial manifestation of the sentiments of the traders of Paris toward my country and its government, so grievously tried by the loss of President Lincoln.
Please receive, Mr. President, the assurance of my most distinguished and most cordial sentiments.
Mr. Allain Niquet,
President of the National Union of Commerce and Industry.
(3d category, No. 35.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Cuicedo
Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated April 26, and to express to you all my thanks for the sympathy of which you have sent me the evidence on the occasion of our great national mourning. In the midst of all these marks of kind regard which are given us at this moment, we are particularly sensitive about those which emanate from men belonging, like you, to the American continent, and who are devoted to our institutions. Please accept, sir, the assurance of my distinguished regards.
Mr. I. M. Torres Cuicedo.
(3d category, No. 21.)
Mr. Bigelow to M. de Fèlice
Sir: I have been extremely touched by the very sympathizing letter which you were pleased to address me in your name, personally, and for several of your friends, members of the Protestant church of France, and correspondents of the society for the abolition of slavery. Permit me to say to you that I attach especial value to seeing the efforts of my country and its government in the interest of the holy cause of humanity appreciated with so much loftiness by men such as you.
I beg you to accept my best thanks, and to transmit them to your friends, among whom I find M. M. Courtois, with whom I had the happiness to make acquaintance at Toulouse.
Please receive the assurance of my sentiments of high consideration.
Mr. G. de Felice.
(3d category, No. 11.)
Mr. Bigelow to M. de Lafayette
Sir: In the midst of all the testimonials of sympathy which I receive on the occasion of our great national mourning, none could bring me more real consolation than yours.
The name which you so worthily bear recalls the services which my country will always keep in remembrance, and will remain united in the gratitude of my countrymen with those of Washington and Lincoln. Please, sir, to accept, with all my thanks, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Mr. Oscar Lafayette.
(3d category, No. 7.)
Mr. Bigelow to Rev. M. Barthe
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated May 2, through which you were pleased to send to me your adhesion to the well-considered address from your colleagues, present at this time in Paris.
I thank you cordially for the part you take in our great national mourning, for the sympathy with which you appreciate our efforts in the interest of the sacred cause of humanity, and for the prayers you address to God in behalf of my country. Please accept, sir, the assurance of my sentiments of high consideration.
Rev. M. Barthe.
(3d category, No. 4.)
Mr. Bigelow to General Faubert
General: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of the address which you were pleased to transmit to me, as well in your own name as in that of your son, on the occasion of the crime of which Messrs. Lincoln and Seward have been victims, and I beg you to accept all my thanks for the sympathy with which you partake in our national mourning.
Receive, sir and general, the assurance of my most distinguished and most cordial sentiments.
General the Count Faubert.
(3d category, No. 1.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Monod
Dear Sir: I thank you earnestly for the sympathy, the expression of which you were pleased to send me on the occasion of our great national mourning, and for the delicate attention with which you have brought to my knowledge those touching words by which the pious pastor William Monod announced our misfortune to the Evangelical Society.
Mr. Monod had taken the trouble to write to me one of the kindest of letters, before his departure for America; but that letter only reached my legation after my departure for Brest, and when I got back to Paris, precipitately recalled by the terrible news of the death of Mr. Lincoln, it was impossible for me, in the midst of my occupations which assailed me, to send to Mr. Monod the information he sought of me. I will therefore be greatly obliged to you shall write to him to make all excuses for me.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my most distinguished respects.
M. Adolphe Monod.
(3d category, No. 18.)
Mr. Bigelow to Messrs. L. & C. Didé
Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the address you were pleased to send me, as well in your own name as in that of the working-men of your house. In the midst of the deep grief which has fallen on Mrs. Lincoln, there cannot be more effective: consolation than the marks of sympathy by which she is surrounded, and I shall make it my duty to send her your address. I request you to accept yourselves, and cause your worthy operatives to receive, the expression of my thanks.
Receive, gentlemen, the assurances of my most distinguished regards.
MM. L. & C. Didé.
(2d category, first subdivision, No. 10.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Molard
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter which you have been pleased to address to me in the name of the “Masonic Lodge of Triumphant Friends.” I beg you to accept personally and to transmit to the lodge all my thanks for the marks of sympathy which it has pleased to give to my country and its government on the occasion of our great national mourning.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my distinguished sentiments.
Mr. Molard.
[Page 340]Similar letters were addressed to Messrs. Thierry, second category, first subdivision, No. 17; Leon Richer, second category, first subdivision, No. 8; Perrot, second category, third subdivision, No. 2; A. Lacoste, second category, first subdivision, No. 21; Laverriere, second category, first subdivision, No. 13; Bourgeon fils, second category, first subdivision, No. 18; Bailleux, second category, first subdivision, No. 11; Massol, second category, second subdivision, No. 4; Audieu, second category, first subdivision, No. 22; Coutherat, second category, first subdivision, No. 20; Lesueur, second category, first subdivision, No. 15; Thelmier, first category, first subdivision, No. 2; La Flize, second category, first subdivision, No. 19; Guillet, second category, first subdivision, No. 4; Demure, second category, first subdivision, No. 14; Campagno, second category, second subdivision, No. 10; Dr. Gerault, second category, first subdivision, No. 20; Lodges of Tours, second category, first subdivision, No. 16; Thirifocq, second category, first subdivision, No. 23; Eliot, second category, first subdivision, No. 23; Soubert, second category, first subdivision, No. 24; Manlier, second category, first subdivision, No. 25; A. Bourgeaux, second category, second subdivision, No. 9; Roux, second category, second subdivision, No. 14; Guilbert, second cate gory, first subdivision, No. 26.
(3d category, No. 31.)
Mr. Bigelow to M. Khan
Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your despatch dated the 9th instant.
I will hasten to transmit to President Johnson the very sympathizing communication which you have been pleased to address to him through my intervention in the name of his Imperial Majesty the Shah of Persia.
You may be sure that my country and its government will learn with cordial satisfaction the part which your august sovereign takes in our national mourning.
Accept, Mr. Chargé d’Affaires, the assurance of my very high consideration.
His Excellency Suleyman Khan, Chargé d’Affaires of his Imperial Majesty the Shah of Persia, at Paris, &c., &c.
(3d category, No. 30.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Pelatte
Sir: I am in receipt of your favor of the 10th instant, covering an address from the Americans resident at Nice to the President of the United States.
I shall lose no time in transmitting it, agreeably to their request and yours.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
Mr. Leon Pelatte.
(2d category, first subdivision, No. 3.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Charpentier
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated 10th May, and of the enclosure accompanying it, which I will hasten, in conformity with your desire, to forward to the address you have indicated to me.
Nothing can be more consoling to my compatriots, in the midst of our national mourning, [Page 341] than to learn how much their sorrow is shared in Europe, and I pray you to become the organ to the lodge “The Friends of Order” in Paris of all my gratitude for the sympathy which it sends to my country and to its government.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my very distinguished sentiments.
Mr. Charpentier.
(3d category, No. 33.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Lesperut
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th, and of the bi ographical notice of the life of Mr. Abraham Lincoln which accompanied it. I pray you to receive all my thanks, and to believe in my most distinguished and most earnest regard.
Mr. Lesperut.
(3d category, No. 15.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Mongel Bey
Mr. President: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter of the international committee for establishing the American canal by the isthmus of Darien over which you preside. You will much oblige me by transmitting to your colleagues my thanks for the sympathy whereof you send me so precious tokens, on the occasion of our great national mourning. I take pleasure in assuring you of the interest I feel in the success of enterprises which, like yours, are dest ned to render more easy the communication between different portions of the American continent, and by consequence to draw more close the ties of amity which unite their inhabitants.
Accept, sir, the expressions of my most distinguished sentiments.
Mr. Mongel Bey.
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Cochin
Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated 17th, as well as of the address which you are pleased to ask me to send to the President of the United States in the name of the French Committee of Emancipation. In conformity with your wish that document has already been transmitted to its destination.
The President will receive with lively satisfaction the testimonial of sympathy of an assemblage of men who figure among the most eminent leaders of public opinion in Europe, and their enlightened counsels will certainly be received with the deference due to the source from which they emanate, and the more so as they only reflect faithfully the policy deliberately determined on and constantly followed by my government from the beginning of the rebellion. I have no need to tell you what price the President and the people of the United States will attach to the efforts of which this address is the first fruit, and which tends to spread among the people the teachings of which the late insurrection in America has been so fruitful. I have no need, either, to assure you of the cordiality with which I am disposed to join my co-operation to that of men so happily inspired. I shall be proud to associate my humble services to those of an association as capable as that of which you are the organ, [Page 342] of carrying out in good faith the noble enterprise to the success of which its members have willed to devote their talent and their reputation.
Accept, dear sir, the assurance of my most distinguished and most cordial regard.
Mr. A. Cochin.
P. S. I will do myself the pleasure of sending to you, at the earliest, the names you have done me the honor to ask for.
(3d category, No. 2.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Davison
Sir: I have received the address of the citizens of Paw which, at the request of your consular agent at that place, you were good enough to send me. It will be placed among the archives of the legation.
Yours, very respectfully,
C. Davison, Esq., United States Consul at Bordeaux.
(1st category, No. 4.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. E. de Magnili
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your latter dated 20th instant, and of the address of the Pastoral Conference of the Drome and the Ardeche to Mrs. Lincoln. You may count upon the gratitude with which the Christian spirit of the widow of our lamented President will receive the expressions of sympathy and the very touching consolations with which you have been pleased to charge me to transmit to her, and I pray you to accept my thanks, with the assurance, Mr. President, of my sentiments of high consideration.
Mr. E. de Magnin.
(2d category, first subdivision, No. 12.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Viennet
Sir: Will you please to be the interpreter to the “Lodges of the Scotch Rite,” of all the gratitude with which I have received the deeply sympathizing testimonial you have done me the honor to address to me in their name on the occasion of our great national mourning. I shall make it a duty to respond to the wishes you have manifested to me, by transmitting to President Johnson and Mrs. Lincoln the expression of sentiments which will affect them deeply.
I avail of this occasion, sir, to say to you how much I congratulate myself on perceiving my country and its government so justly appreciated by men who, like you, are at the head of the republic of letters in Europe, and whose judgment is regarded as authority everywhere.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my sentiments of high and affectionate consideration.
M. Viennet, Member of the French Academy.
(3d category, No. 61.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Campadelli
Sir: I thank you for the verses you have been pleased to address to me, and I accept with thankfulness the expression of the sympathizing sentiments which they contain for my country and its government, on the occasion of our national mourning, and of the great trials we have just passed through.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my very distinguished regards.
Mr. Campadelli.
Similar letters were addressed to—
Messrs. Pierre Greil (3d category, No. 60.)
Paul Thouzery, (3d category, No. 62.)
Auguste l’Allour, (3d category, No. 63.)
(3d category, No. 66.)
Mr. Bigdow to Mr. Chénier
Sir: I thank you for the piece of verse, “America and Lincoln,” which you have pleased to address to me. I have been truly touched with the sympathizing homage which you have rendered with as much feeling as delicacy to the memory of our regretted President.
Accept, sir, the assurances of my distinguished respect.
Mr. Chénier.
(3d category, No. 36.)
Mr. Bigelow to Madame Rivet
Madame: I have perused with the liveliest interest the touching verses that you have done me the honor to address to me on the occasion of the abominable crime of which Mr. Lincoln has been the victim. I beg you believe in all my gratitude for so precious a mark of sympathy as you have pleased to give to my country and to its government under this sad event.
Accept, madame, the assurance of my most respectful regards,
Madame Banet Rivet.
(3d category, No. 31.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Lesley
Dear Sir: I have received the address from the democrats of Lyons which you sent me, and will lose no time in transmitting it to the President.
I am, dear sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
James Lesley, Esq., Consul of the United States.
(3d category, No. 22.)
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Bloucourt
Dear Sir: I have been profoundly touched by the very sympathizing terms in which the creoles of Guadaloupe have appreciated the loss which my country and government has undergone in the death of Mr. Lincoln.
He merited their gratitude, for whilst he was the firm stay of humanity, he seemed to have been stirred up to become the special benefactor of the African race.
Although the hand of a dastardly assassin sufficed to reduce to silence that voice ever ready to answer to the calls of humanity and of justice, it has not power enough to resist the immortal influence of his example and of his august martyrdom. In any civilized country slavery cannot long survive such a life crowned by such a death.
I beg you, sir, to be so obliging as to transmit to your compatriots of Guadaloupe the expression of my grateful appreciation of their honorable sympathy, and accept the assurance of the high consideration with which I have the honor to be your very obedient servant,
Mr. Melville Bloucourt.
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Cochin
Dear Sir: The address of the French Committee of Emancipation, which you desired me to communicate to the President of the United States, has been received. I am instructed to express to you the gratification he has derived from the evidence already furnished by your organization of the earnest desire of so respectable a body of French citizens to aid the people of the United States in their efforts to ameliorate the condition of that race which has suffered so long all the evils of slavery.
In response to your request for publications tending to promote the objects of your committee, I transmit herewith the third annual report of the National Freedmen’s Relief Association of the District of Columbia.
I am, dear sir, with high consideration, your very obedient servant,
Monsieur A. Cochin.
I. N. Proeschel to the Rev. Messrs. Jaulmes and Pulsford.
(1st category, No. 18.)
Gentlemen: The minister of the United States has charged me to acknowledge to you the reception of the address which you have been pleased to transmit to him in the name of the French Methodist conference, and to assure you of the pleasure with which he will en, deavor to cause it to reach the widow of our lamented President.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my most respectful consideration.
Messrs. Pastors G. Jaulmes and L. Pulsford.