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

Consul of Switzerland

Consulate of Switzerland,
Philadelphia, April 19, 1865.

To the honorable Department of State of the
United States of America, Washington:

The friendly and near relations which connect your country, the great sister republic, with the one they have the honor to represent for their respective departments, will justify the undersigned, apart from the steps undoubtedly taken by their representative in your city, to respectfully tender to your honorable department, in representation of this sadly bereaved country, his Excellency the President, and the mourning family of the noble deceased, in the name of their country as well as for themselves, their most deeply and sincerely felt expressions of condolence at the lamentable loss sustained by this country by the death of Abraham Lincoln, its late great and noble President.

The undersigned are the more deeply impressed by the feelings of profound sorrow at this lamentable loss, as their country as well as themselves have, from the beginning, taken the liveliest interest in the great struggle and the heavy trials this sister republic has had to undergo, resembling so much a recent epoch in their own country’s history, and have greeted with joy the splendid morning dawning after the night of war and anxiety.

To him, the illustrious deceased, with the aid of the Almighty, and the great statesmen and generals at his side, the glorious achievements of this struggle for the preservation of liberty are due, and when he died, a martyr for liberty, by the hands of a wretched assassin, the people of this country lost not only the preserver of the republic, but a magnanimous father and friend, and well can we appreciate and feel with them their deep mourning, though sublime be the lot and glorious the memory of him whom we have lost.

Trusting in God that to his Excellency the new President will be granted to follow up the glorious results attained by his noble predecessor, and that a long time of peaceful prosperity may heal up the wounds of a lamentable bloody war, we feel assured that the friendly connections between the two sister republics will continue the same, uninterrupted for all future, and have the honor to remain, with feelings of the highest respect, your most obedient servants,

[seal.]

• RUDOLPHE KORADI,
  Consul of Switzerland.
• P. J. WILDBERGER,
  Vice-Consul of Switzerland.