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

Grand Council of the Union League of the State of California

Grand Council Union League Association, State of California,
San Francisco, April 20, 1865.

Resolutions passed at a meeting of the Grand Council Union League Association of the State of California.

Gentlemen: At a meeting of the Grand Council Union League Association, held on the 18th instant, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Whereas information has been received of the death of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by assassination at the national capital on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, after a protracted and successful contest with the treason and rebellion of the slave-power against the life of the nation, which act of assassination has caused the deepest emotion of sympathy and the most intense sorrow to be felt by all loyal people throughout the land: and whereas we believe that this act of treason and murder which has deprived the nation of its Chief Magistrate is the result of the teachings of the institution of slavery: Therefore,

Resolved, That in the assassination of the President of the United States we recognize the legitimate fruit of the “barbarism of slavery” and its antagonism to religion and civilization; and we believe it to be a duty to God, humanity, and the country to forever abolish it throughout the United States, and that the government should listen to no terms of pacification except on the basis of its immediate and total extinction, and the punishment of the leaders and instigators of the rebellion to the full measure which retributive justice demands.

Resolved, That the members of the grand and subordinate councils of the Union League of the State of California, in view of the virtue, patriotism, and high national character of our late beloved President, and in sorrow for this great national calamity, wear the usual emblem of mourning, during the continuance of the rebellion.

Resolved, That the secretary transmit a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to the national grand council and to the subordinate councils in this State.

By order of the grand council:

• S. H. PARKER,
  Grand President.
• ALFRED BARSTOW,
  Grand Secretary.

The Officers and Members of the Union League.