Athenaeum Club, New York City, New York
IN MEMORIAM—ABRAHAM LINCOLN—ATHENÆUM CLUB.
Proceedings of the Athenaum Club in New York city.
At the written request of several members of the association an informal meeting was held at the club house on the evening of the 18th day of April, 1865. The president, Mr. William T. Blodgett, in calling the meeting to order addressed the members as follows:
Gentlemen: The members of the Athenaeum Club have assembled this evening under circumstances of the most painful and distressing character. A [Page 681] national calamity has befallen us which has no parallel in the history of the world, in modern times. Our representative head has been stricken down by the hand of an assassin in the hour of our country’s regeneration, and has turned a nation’s joy and jubilee into a nation’s grief and woe. We have met this evening to take such action as may be meet and proper to give expression to the feelings of this club at the great calamity which has befallen us all in the loss of our wise ruler and that good man Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. Let us as a club mingle our sympathies with those of our common country.
On motion of Mr. T. Bailey Myers, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed by the Chair to propose and submit to the club resolutions expressive of the profound grief felt by its members at the loss the country has sustained, in the assassination of the President of the United States.
The following gentlemen were designated to compose such committee:
T. Bailey Myers, chairman; Francis A. Stout, Henry T. Tuckerman, W. Gary Smith, George P. Putnam, John H. Piatt, Richard Wuint.
On motion of Mr. John A. C. Gray, it was
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to communicate with the authorities and make such arrangements as will enable the club to participate in any funeral obsequies that may be instituted in honor of the late President.
The Chair announced the following committee of arrangements: John A. C. Gray, chairman; Jas. H. Van Alen, William S. Constant, W. Gracie Ullshoeffer, Horace M. Ruggles, Schuyler Skaats, John H. Prout.
Captain Charles Pyne suggested that we should recommend to the art committee to secure from one of the artist members a portrait of the late President, to be hung in the club-house. This suggestion was approved.
On motion, the meeting adjourned to meet on the following evening, to receive the reports of the committees.