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

Soldiers in Harvey General Hospital of Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, undated

“One shall he taken and the other left”

Respected Sir: Amid the throes of our beloved afflicted land, when the loyal millions put on sackcloth and were bowed to the earth in sadness; when the heart of the nation beat with one universal and weighty impulse for the memory of the immortal Lincoln, the lightning flashed the dire intelligence that the curtains of thy secret chamber had been rent by the assassin, thy couch blood-stained by the villanous hireling, thy sons maimed, and, oh horrible, that thou, too, had suffered death; and we mourned for thee as lost to our suffering country, for thy wisdom, thy prudence, thy firmness, and the wealth of thy patriotism, all doubly needed now. But—joyful, grand truth—the subtle fluid reveals to us thou art not dead, and that thy forethought and thy God hath made thee live.

Then live, live; guide the nation through the coming crisis, for her orphans, her widows, her maimed, her future, and for humanity’s sake live.

In testimony whereof, please receive this as a memento of our love, and allow the humble attendants and sick and wounded soldiers of Harvey United States Army General Hospital to subscribe their names.

O. M. ROCKWELL,

V. R. C.

IVER JOHNSON,

23d Wis. Infantry.

O. J. BORN,

36th Wis. Infantry.

C. W. BERRY,

36th Wis. Infantry.

H. S. ABBOTT,

32d Wis. Infantry.

C. H. TALLARD,

Wis. Battery.
And four hundred and twenty-five others.

Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.