To his Excellency John Bigelow, Envoy Extraordinary
Sir: We have learned with the most profound emotions that our beloved late Chief Magistrate is no more; that at the height of his fame and usefulness he has been stricken down by an assassin’s hand. Our joy over the nation’s deliverance from the horrors of civil war is turned into mourning, by an event shocking to humanity, and lamented by every friend of liberty and law.
Separated as we are, temporarily, from our native land, and standing amid the hospitable altars of a people associated with our most cherished traditions, our hearts impel us to give some expression, through you, of our sorrow and our sympathy.
We beg to assure you that we share the grief that fills the hearts of our countrymen at home, and mourn with them the loss of the illustrious citizen, the wise magistrate, the just, pure, and good man.
Yet, while we mourn this incalculable loss, we would gratefully remember that Providence which spared him to his country until he had successfully guided us so near the end of the strife.
His firmness, his justice, ever tempered with mercy, his faith in the dignity and rights of man, and his absorbing patriotism, were the inspirations of his official life, and, under God, have afforded us the happy vision of approaching peace and a restored Union.
Four years ago he was wholly unknown to the world at large, and, except in his own State, had yet to win the confidence of his fellow-citizens. To-day, after an ordeal as severe as ever tested ability and character, he is universally accepted as one of the few born to shape the best destinies of States, and to make the most powerful impress for good upon the fortunes of the human race
If it was not reserved for him to create a nation, he was called most conspicuously to aid in preserving one against the most formidable armed conspiracy ever aimed at the life of a State.
If, in the completeness of our institutions, it was not his office to add to the safeguards of liberty for his own race, it will be his undying glory to have lifted four millions of a feeble and long unbefriended people from bondage to the dignity of personal freedom.
The rights of humanity at last are vindicated, and our country is relieved of its great reproach.
Already the world is claiming for itself this last martyr to the cause of freedom, and Abraham Lincoln has taken his place among the moral constellations which shall impart light and life to all coming generations.
We would here gratefully remember the words of sympathy for our country, and of respect for the fallen, uttered with united voice by the rulers and [Page 100] people of Europe. We believe this event, which all humanity mourns, will strengthen the tie of friendship which should ever unite the brotherhood of States.
We would not in this address say more of the assassin than express our abhorrence of his dreadful crime, but we lovingly remember that the last utterances of him we mourn were words of clemency toward the defeated enemies of his country: “With charity to all, and malice for none,” he was superior to revenge. “Peace and union!” These secured, there was little place in his heart for the severities of justice.
It was this gentleness, united to an integrity and unselfishness of character never surpassed, that won the hearts of his countrymen. We mourn not only the Magistrate we revered, but the friend we loved.
It is not for us to scrutinize the dealings of a just God; we bow before his dispensations when least intelligible to human wisdom. But in sealing with his blood the work to which he was called, Mr. Lincoln has, we believe, been the means of placing upon more imperishable foundations the unity, the glory, and the beneficent power of our beloved country. And if there be inspiration in high example, we know that his wise and upright policy in all our domestic and foreign relations will be an additional guarantee for peace, charity, and justice, throughout the civilized world.
We beg to assure you, and through you Mrs. Lincoln and her family, of our deep sympathy in this their hour of affliction. We know how inadequate is all human consolation, but it is grateful to us to assure the bereaved that we mourn with them their irreparable loss.
To the honored Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, whose death was also purposed, and the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Frederick W. Seward, and their families, we wish also to express our sympathies, in view of their great perils and sufferings.
We deem it fitting to express to our distinguished fellow-citizen who succeeds to the Chief Magistracy our sense of the trying circumstances under which he is called to his new trust. We find in the record of his long and useful public career the basis of the most perfect confidence in his ability, his justice, and his patriotism.
We beg you, sir, to assure our fellow-countrymen, and the more immediate sufferers by the terrible tragedy, and the President, of these our most heartfelt sentiments.
We have the honor, sir, to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
- N. M. BECKWITH,
- JAMES O. PUTNAM,
- JAMES PHALEN,
- WILLIAM C. EMMET,
- THOMAS W. EVANS, M. D.,
- ROBERT M. MASON,
- RICHARD M. HOE,
- JOHNSTON LIVINGSTONE, Committee.
And some two hundred others.