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

Oscar de Lafayette

[Translation.]

Chavaniac, May 2, 1865.

Sir: I hope you will excuse me for addressing you this little note; but you will certainly think it natural that a member of the Lafayette family should wish to join the citizens of the United States in their mourning. At the time the odious crime was committed I was absent from Paris, and was sick; so it was impossible to unite with some of my countrymen in their public expressions of sorrow for the death of the eminent American statesman.

I now express all my regrets, and ask you to accept my personal esteem.

Your obedient servant,

OSCAR DE LAFAYETTE.

The U. S. Minister, in Paris.