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

Municipal Council of Hawick

Hawick, undated

His Excellency the President
of the United States of America:

May it please your excellency, we, the provost magistrates and council of the burgh of Hawick, in that part of her Britannic Majesty’s dominions called Scotland, in-public council assembled, having heard with the deepest sorrow and indignation of the assassination of President Lincoln, hasten to express to you the feelings of horror and execration with which such an atrocious crime is regarded by this whole community, and to tender our sincere sympathy and condolence with the government and people over whom you preside, under the terrible national calamity they have thereby sustained.

May it please your excellency also to convey the deep sympathy and condolence we feel towards the widow and family of the late lamented President, under the sudden and overwhelming bereavement over which they have, in an especial manner, been called to mourn.

That the terrible catastrophe which has befallen your country may be mercifully overruled by Him who is Governor among the nations, for the speedy pacification and prosperity of the American people, is the earnest prayer of your excellency’s most obedient servants.

Signed in name and by authority of the provost magistrates and council of the burgh of Hawick.

[seal.]

GEO. WILSON,

Provost.