Mr. Judd to Mr.
Seward
No. 97.]
United States Legation
Berlin,
May 2,1865.
Sir: In my despatch No.
95, you were informed, that I had named
Monday, the first day of May, as the time to receive from the members of
the Prussian House of Deputies then address of condolence on account of
the death of President Lincoln, and the attempt to assassinate yourself.
A note, received in the morning of that day, appointed fiveo’clock p. m.
as the hour at which the deputation would be at the legation for that
purpose.
I had concluded, from some casual remark of a member, that the deputation
would be composed of some six or eight members. But to my pleasurable
surprise on its arrival, I found it numbered twenty-six of the most
talented, celebrated and influential men of the Chamber, headed by the
venerable President Grabow, First Vice-President Herr von Unruh, and
Second Vice-President Herr von BackumDolffs. The additional names of the
members of the committee were as follows: Deputy Dr. William Loewe,
deputy Prof. Dr. Virchow, deputy Baron von Vaerst, deputy Stavenhagen,
deputy Dr. jurWaldeck, deputy Parrisius, deputy von Bonin,
(ex-minister,) deputy Bassenge, deputy Schroeder, deputy Dr. Ziegert,
deputy Duncker, deputy Lent, deputy Baron von Zedlitg and Kurzbach,
deputy Riebold, deputy Schneider, deputy Dr. Johann Jacoby, deputy
Raffauf, deputy von Saucken-Tarputschen, deputy Dr. Liemens, deputy
Dahlmann, deputy Dr. Krebs, deputy Dr. Von Bunsen.
The title of doctor repeatedly recurring indicates a university degree,
and not that of a physician, as used in our country. Dr. Loewe, who had
the honor of [Page 53] your personal
acquaintance when he resided in New York, the political troubles of 1848
and 1849 having caused his temporary absence from Prussia, as stated in
a former despatch, presented the address with a few remarks in German
expressive of the deep feeling in all Germany at the death of Mr.
Lincoln, and your narrow escape from the same fate, at the hand of an
assassin, which he followed by reciting the address in full. After
apologizing in German for my imperfect use of that language, and asking
to be allowed to respond in English, I expressed the thanks of the
government and the people of the United States for this sympathetic
manifestation of interest in our affliction, assuring them that the
latest advices happily stated your improving condition, although the
danger had not yet fully passed. That they might rest under the certain
conviction that the object sought to be accomplished by the conspirators
in these horrible and murderous attacks would not succeed. The
government would not be paralyzed, but move stoutly and firmly forward
in the political and social regeneration of the communities in
rebellion. That the experience of the last four years had demonstrated
beyond question the power of a people under a republican form of
government to resist and overcome interior commotion and rebellion. That
the administration of public affairs had passed to a new President,
habituated to public life and to deal with national questions, and whose
talents and firmness of purpose would speedily bring into submission
what little remained of the rebellious spirit. That revenge was no part
of our national character, but security for the future was the essential
element that would control and guide the conduct of public affairs. That
the people of the United States appreciated the sympathy of the German
people during this terrible rebellion, and that the soldiers of German
birth, many of whom not even citizens, would be held in lasting
remembrance by a grateful people, and that their memory would be bound
with the laurel common to all who had fought this battle of freedom,
without distinction as to nativity or color. One member of the
committee, Mr. Schneider Sagan, was then in mourning for an only son,
killed at Petersburg, Virginia, and another, Deputy Raffauf, has now a
son serving in the army of the United States. The German heart has been
more moved by these awful occurrences than by any event in their own
history since the year 1813. In the minds of the great mass of German
readers Mr. Lincoln had come to symbolize the republic in all its
attributes of the liberty and equality of all men, and their aspirations
and hopes turned to him with admiration and affection. They feel that in
him all humanity has lost a pure and noble champion.
After the close of my remarks, some time was spent in friendly
conversation with the various members of the committee, and I parted
with them at last, deeply gratified and consoled by this mark of
generous and noble sympathy with our people and our cause.
I enclose herewith the original address, with an English translation
thereof, by the secretary of this legation, Mr. Kreismann, who was
present during the interview. It is signed by two hundred and
thirty-eight members of the chamber, and I feel persuaded that a fit
place will be assigned by you for this interesting document in the
archives of the State Department.
Your old acquaintance and friend, Professor Tellkampf, a member of the
upper house, sought and obtained leave to add his signature. You will
readily find his to you familiar handwriting.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington.
[Page 54]
[Translation.]
Address of the members of the Prussian House of Deputies.
Sir: We, the undersigned, members of the
Prussian House of Deputies, beg you to accept the expression of our
profoundest sympathy in the severe loss the government and the
people of the United States have suffered in the death of President
Lincoln, and alike the expression of our deepest horror at the
shocking crime to which he fell a victim. We are the more deeply
moved by this public calamity, inasmuch as it occurred at a moment
when we were rejoicing at the triumph of the United States, and as
the simultaneous attempt upon the life of the faithful partner of
the President, Mr. Seward, who, with the wisdom and resolution of
true statesmanship, supported him in the fulfilment of his arduous
task, betrays the object of the horrible crime to have been, by the
death of these great and good men, to deprive the people of the
United States of the fruits of their protracted struggle and
patriotic self-sacrificing devotion at the very moment when the
triumph of right and law promises to bring back the blessings of a
long desired peace.
Sir, living among us, you are a witness of the heartfelt sympathy
which the people have ever preserved for the people of the United
States during this long and severe conflict. You are aware that
Germany has looked with pride and joy on the thousands of her sons
who in this struggle have placed themselves so resolutely on the
side of law and right. You have seen with what joy the victories of
the Union have been hailed, and how confident the faith in the final
triumph of the great cause, and the restoration of the Union in all
its greatness, has ever been, even in the midst of adversity.
This great work of the restoration of the Union will, we confidently
hope, not be hindered or interrupted by this terrible crime. The
blood of the great and wise chieftain will only cement the more
firmly the Union for which he has died. This the inviolable respect
for law and love of liberty, which the people of the United States
have ever evinced in the very midst of the prodigious struggles of
their great war, abundantly guarantees.
We request your good offices for giving expression with your
government to our sincere condolences, and our sympathies with the
people and government of the United States, and proffer to yourself,
sir, the assurance of our distinguished consideration.
(Follow two hundred and thirty-eight signatures.)
Remarks of Deputy Dr. William Loewe in the Prussian House of
Deputies.
Gentlemen: I have ventured to request the
president to permit me to make a communication, for which I claim
your sympathy. That which I wish to request of you does not indeed
belong to the immediate field of our labors, but it goes so far
beyond the narrow circle of private life that, in union with a
number of our colleagues, I have ventured to call your attention to
it. A considerable number of our colleagues feel the need, under the
dismay produced by the shocking news of the unhappy death of
President Lincoln, to give expression to their feelings in regard to
his fate, and their sympathy with the nation from whom he has been
snatched away. Abraham Lincoln has fallen by the hand of an assassin
in the moment of triumph of the cause which he had conducted, and
while he was in hopes of being able to give to his people the peace
so long desired.
Our colleagues wish, in an address, to express the sympathy, not of
this house—this I say in order to remove all apprehension of a
violation of the rules of the house—but the sympathy of the
individual members of the house in this great and unhappy event.
This address we desire to present to the minister of the United
States. Gentlemen, I will lay the address on the table, and I beg
those of my colleagues who share with me the feelings of warm and
heartfelt sympathy in the lot of a nation which is united by so many
bonds with our own people to give expression to these feelings by
appending their signatures to the address. These sympathies I regard
as all the more justified, as the United States have won a new and
splendid triumph for mankind, through the great struggle which they
have been carrying on for the cause of true humanity, and which, as
I confidently hope, in spite of this murder of their chief, they
will conduct to a successful termination. In expressing our feelings
of pain, we desire at the same time to prove our hearty sympathy
with the American nation, and those of our brothers who have taken
part in the struggle for their cause. The man, gentlemen, who has
fallen by the murderous hand, and whom I seem to see with his
simple, honest countenance—the man who accomplished such great deeds
from the simple desire conscientiously to perform his duty—the man
who never wished to be more or less than the most conscientious and
most faithful servant of his people—this man will find his own
glorious place in the pages of history. In the deepest reverence I
bow my head before this modest greatness, and I think it is
especially agreeable to the spirit of our own nation, with its deep
inner life, and admiration of self-sacrificing devotion, and effort
after the ideal, to pay the tribute of veneration to such greatness,
exalted as it is by its simplicity and modesty. I beg you,
gentlemen, accordingly, to join in this expression of veneration for
the great dead, which, without distinction of party, we offer to him
as a true servant of his state and of the cause of pure
humanity.
