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  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 257

Trading and Working Classes of Brighton

Brighton, May 5, 1865

At a public meeting of the trading and working classes of Brighton, held at the town hall on Friday evening, the 5th of May, 1865, on the assassination of the President of the United States—J. L. Brigden, esq., mayor, in the chair—it was unanimously resolved as follows:

That this meeting regards with feelings of utter abhorrence and indignation the atrocious murder of Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, by the hand of a ruthless assassin, and desires to express its profound sympathy with those who are our brethren in origin, at the awful calamity which has thus befallen their great nation, and stricken us with amazement and horror; and that this meeting of working men sympathize the more deeply with the untimely death of Abraham Lincoln, as he was the first President elected from the working classes to the high position of ruler of one of the mightiest nations of the globe; that he carried successfully the struggle of free against slave labor, and we confidently hope and believe that his successor, Andrew Johnson, who also sprang from the same class, may complete the work so nobly begun.

That the deepest sympathy of this meeting be presented to Mrs. Lincoln on this most calamitous event, which, whilst it has deprived the nation of the United States of its President, has rendered her a sorrowing widow, under circumstances so cruel, lamentable, and distressing.

That the address adopted at this meeting, as well as the foregoing resolutions, be presented to his excellency Charles Francis Adams, minister of the United States, by the mayor of Brighton, in conjunction with the members of the borough, who are hereby respectfully requested to join him therein.

Signed on behalf of the meeting.
JOHN LEONHANDT BRIGDEN.

Mayor of Brighton, Sussex, Chairman.