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

Inhabitants of Sheffield

Sheffield, England, May 1, 1865.

Address of the inhabitants of Sheffield, England.

Madam: The inhabitants of Sheffield, in public meeting assembled, beg permission to approach you in the hour of your grief, to assure you how deeply and tenderly they sympathize with you in your great sorrow.

They are mournfully reminded of the bereavement of their own beloved sovereign, and are well aware that time alone can heal the deep and terrible wound which has been inflicted upon you.

Without trespassing further upon the sanctity of your sorrow, they desire to express the fervent hope that you may find consolation in the contemplation of the noble and righteous life of him who has been so suddenly taken away, in the thought that his influence over the minds of his countrymen, and his power to promote the great cause for which he would willingly have died, has been increased by his tragical martyrdom; and, above all, in the love of that God whom he served, and who has promised “to comfort all them that mourn,” “to be the Father of the fatherless and the husband of the widow.”

Signed on behalf of the meeting:

THOMAS JESSOP,

Mayor and Chairman.

Mrs. Lincoln,
Widow of his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States of America.