Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
[Enclosure No. 3 to despatch No. 192.]
Caen, Calvados,
October 20, 1865.
Sir: At the first news of the assassination
of President Lincoln we had circulated the ad dress which we send
you so late to-day.
This address was covered with the signatures of the most prominent
persons of our city, and names collected from all classes of
society.
Wishing to add to the number, one of our friends took the address and
caused it to pass from hand to hand, and finally it was mislaid for
several months. It was impossible to think of asking for so many
signatures over again, but happily we succeeded in finding the
paper, and now hasten to send it to you.
We think, indeed, that it is never too late to testify once more the
sympathy of the French people for the American people, and to add
our felicitations to your President Johnson upon the
re-establishment of the Union in a manner at once so conciliating
and so energetic, so firm and so lawful.
Thus America gives to the Old World a great and noble lesson. Among
us a powerful general, commanding nearly a million of soldiers,
would have profited by that crime to proclaim that it was necessary
to save the republic by a dictatorship, and he would at last have
destroyed it for the profit of personal ambition.
With you the Constitution has been respected with a sublime
simplicity. Grant, Sherman, and all your generals remain simple
citizens, but great citizens.
We thank them; we thank your President and your noble American people
for giving to us at this day the spectacle of the many virtues of
the bright days of the Roman republic— to us, people of the Latin
race, who have now before our eyes only Octaviuses without vigor,
tottering in their buskins while trying to play the part of worn-out
Cæsars amid the suppressed jars of Europe.
Hail, then, to Johnson, to Grant, to Sherman! Hail to all your
citizens, and heaven grant that they may send back to France with
the winds of ocean—with its tempests, if need be— those powerful
blasts of liberty which it sent to. them a century ago at its first
awakening.
We salute you fraternally.
EDWARD TALBOT, Proprietor.
TÊTE, Retired
Merchant.
Mr. BlGELOW, Minister Plenipotentiary of the
Republic of the United States, at Paris.
[Enclosure No. 4 to despatch No.
192.]
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Talbot
Legation of the United
States,
Paris,
October 27, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter dated October 20, and of the address of the
citizens of Caen to President Johnson, by which it was accompanied.
I will at once give to this address the direction you have
indicated.
I thank you for the sympathy for my country and its government, of
which you have been kind enough to send me this expression, and I
beg that you will convey my acknowledgments to those who have joined
you in it.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my most distinguished
consideration.
Monsieur Edward Talbot, Caen, Colvados.
