Mr. Braylas to Mr. Botassi
[Translation.]
Athens, May 9, 1865.
The infamous assassination attempted lately against the person of Mr. Lincoln, the President of the United States of America, as also against the enlightened Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. William H. Seward, has filled with horror and indignation the whole Greek nation and the government of his Royal Highness, so much more as at the moment when this dreadful crime was being perpetrated the end of the sanguinary war was being ushered in which for so many years had shaken a free and intelligent country to which Greece has never ceased feeling the greatest sympathy.
The death of a man of such high fame as the now immortal Lincoln is an irreparable and common loss felt not only by the United States, but by mankind in general, because as a truly great politician, Mr. Lincoln proved by results that he knew how to protect the real interests of the nation by turning the laurels of his victorious troops towards the common good of his country and mankind, and by endeavoring to cement a union by clemency.
You are solicited, Mr. Botassi, to express, officially, to the government of the United States the deep sympathy of the Greek nation and the condolence which it would convey to them for the disaster which has occurred, and you will add in your despatch that we will in Greece pray that the United States will pass unshaken through this ordeal, being confident in the capacity of the man who has succeeded in the government of his country.
Mr. D. N. Botassi,
Consul of his Royal Higness in New York.