Office of the Historian
  1. Home
  2. Historical Documents
  3. 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
  4. Document 2

House of Deputies

Session of the House of Deputies, April 29, 1865.

The session opened at 10.40.

Deputy Dr. Berger spoke as follows:

Gentlemen: The news of the tragical fate which has befallen the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, through a murderous hand, at the very moment in which the cause of the northern States, and with it the cause of freedom and civilization and humanity, was victorious, has—I believe I may announce—deeply moved all circles and all classes of society in our fatherland also.

From the very beginning of that eventful and bloody struggle, which has lasted several years, Austria was always on the side of the north; and on the day on which the news of the last victory of the northern States reached Washington, the man who now stands at the head of the United States declared that the sovereign of the state to which we belong, from the beginning an enemy of every rebellion, had always stood on the side of the north.

I think that it becomes this house, which represents the population of Austria, to express its sympathy for the cause of the northern States, its sympathy for the tragic fate of Abraham Lincoln, the plain, simple man who has risen out of the people to be placed at the head of the greatest state, and I move that the president should summon the house to signify by rising from their places, this its double sentiment—sympathy for the tragic fate of President Lincoln—sympathy for the cause of the northern States.

The President. I doubt not that the House shares the views and feelings which the deputy Berger has expressed and will be ready to give proper evidence thereof by rising from their seats.

The assembly rises. During this ceremony, the ministers are in their places as deputies.