Mr. Hanson to Mr. Seward.
[Extract.]
No. 38.]
Sir: On the 30th ultimo the very melancholy tidings reached us of the sad loss which our nation has sustained by the death of our honored President, and also of the murderous attempt made upon your valuable life and that of your beloved son.
I assure you my grief at this great national calamity is profound, and my sympathy with you, in your sore affliction, deep and sincere.
It is my daily and earnest prayer that you and yours may be speedily restored to health, and that God may continue to guide and support you in your anduous duties, and that our President, Andrew Johnson, may be endowed with wisdom from on high.
The universal sympathy of the people of Liberia is accorded to us in our deep distress. Flags at half-mast have been floating daily from all the principal residences, &c., and expressions of condolence come to me from every quarter.
It is gratifying to my feelings to forward to you, herein, a proof of the interest felt in our affairs by the President of Liberia and his cabinet. At 12 m. yesterday a deputation, comprising all the members of the cabinet, called upon [Page 479] me at the legation for the purpose of presenting a preamble and certain resolutions adopted at a full meeting of the President and his cabinet, with a request that I would forward them to their proper destination. I left my bed of sickness to entertain them.
The honorable H. R. W. Johnson, secretary of state of the republic, on presenting the documents, made some very tender and eloquent remarks, to which I endeavored to make a suitable reply; but I am fearful that they will all have passed from my memory before I shall have strength to pen them down. However, you can well conceive what they should be.
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I have the honor to remain, sir, with deep sympathy and profound respect, your very obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.