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

Earl Russell to Sir Frederick Bruce.

Foreign Office, May 6, 1865.

Sir: In pursuance of the notice which, as I informed you in my despatch of the 28th ultimo, had been given by her Majesty’s ministers in both houses of Parliament, I moved in the House of Lords, on Monday last, the address of the Queen, of which I send you a copy. The motion was seconded by Lord Derby and agreed to, nemine dissentiente. In the absence of Viscount Palmerston, who, to his great regret, was prevented by illness from being present on the occasion, Sir G. Grey, her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for the home department, moved a similar address to the House of Commons, which motion was seconded by Mr. Disraeli, and was likewise unanimously agreed to.

The Queen has been pleased to return to both houses the most gracious answer, of which I enclose a copy.

In giving a copy of this despatch and of its enclosures to the acting secretary of the United States, you will say to him that these addresses of the two houses of Parliament express the sentiments of the whole British nation, on the deplorable assassination of the late President of the United States. I am, &c„

RUSSELL.

Hon. Sir F. Bruce, G. C. B., &c., &c., &c.