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

Mr. Winchester to Mr. Portman.

Yokohama, June 9, 1865.

Sir: It is with unusual emotion that I propose to discharge the duty of expressing the sentiments of profound pain and regret which the confirmation of the intelligence of Mr. Lincoln’s atrocious assassination has caused me in common with all her Majesty’s subjects in this country.

That such a deed should have been perpetrated by one of our common race is in itself sufficient reason for profound indignation which this great crime has excited in the hearts of Englishmen. And I can only express my sincere hope that Providence, in permitting the removal of so good a man, under circumstances so awful, from the task of composing the difficulties necessarily following civil warfare, will raise up other instruments for carrying it out in the humane spirit of the deceased President.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

CHARLES A. WINCHESTER,

H. B. M. Chargé d’Affaires in Japan.

A. L. C. Portman, Esq.,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the United States in Japan.