American Residents of Valparaiso
Resolutions adopted at a meeting of American residents at Valparaiso, May 29, 1865.
Deeply impressed and appalled by the intelligence this day received, that Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States of America, has been assassinated in a manner unsurpassed for treachery and cowardice, we adopt the following resolutions:
Resolved, That our beloved country has in this event suffered the loss of one of her purest and noblest sons, one of her best and most self-sacrificing citizens, one of her most upright and sagacious statesmen.
Resolved, That we blend our sympathies with those of our fellow-citizens at home and abroad in the sorrow irrepressibly awakened by this occurrence, the atrocity of which, in the view of all honorable men, can be measured only by the distress it produces in the bosoms of patriots.
[Page 35]Resolved, That we cherish in highest honor the private virtues and the public career of the late President, who in his lifetime patriotically sought, with animosity towards none, with charity towards all, to save the nation’s life, and heal its wounds; while his death, investing his counsels with new value, cannot fail to endear him more than ever to his friends, as well as to disabuse the prejudices and assuage the animosity of his opponents.
Resolved, That while we bow with the humility appropriate to our limited vision before the wisdom of God, who has permitted this wild outbreak of the wrath of man to succeed, we do still acknowledge His merciful intervention that had spared so long a life on which such interests hung through the earlier periods of greater confusion and greater peril; and we do yet cherish profoundly the hope, and offer reverently the prayer, that the nation’s life may still be dear in His all-embracing eye; that its institutions may be maintained unimpaired, and its banner ever wave, an emblem of justice and freedom on earth.
Resolved, That while the depths of grief are unutterably stirred within us, we still yield to no despondency in view of the machinations of men of criminal intent, confident that other patriots, true, wise, and brave, will arise from among the popular ranks, to serve the cause of our country, to maintain under God her liberties, and to guide her destiny to the wisest and noblest ends.
These resolutions were at once adopted with entire unanimity and emotion.
The following resolution was also proposed by the committee, in relation to the attack on the life of Secretary Seward:
Resolved, That this meeting rejoices to learn that the dastardly attack on the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, at the time an invalid in his bed, failed utterly; while we hope that, yet living to witness that honorable and permanent peace for which so assiduously he has labored restored throughout the land, he may long be spared to serve his country, and to have her do him the honor his patriotic devotion to her interests and sufferings on her behalf have deserved.
Mr. Caldwell recommended that the citizens of the United States, in conformity with the custom at home, should wear some token of mourning on the arm or chest for the term of fifteen days. This was seconded by Paul Delano, esq., and adopted.