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

Count d’Avila to Señor de Figaniere

[Translation.]

Department of State for Foreign Affairs,
May 1, 1865.

The government of his Majesty has been informed of the horrible crime of which, unhappily, President Lincoln and his Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, have been victims.

So sad an event, clothing in mourning a nation over whose destinies that distinguished magistrate presided, could not but be profoundly felt by the Portuguese nation, connected as it ever has been in the closest ties of friendship and good understanding with the United States.

The part which his Majesty’s government takes in the grief which, with reason, oppresses the American nation, and the indignation which that crime has given cause for, have led me to direct you, by order of his Majesty the King, to make known, without loss of time and in the most express terms, to the government of the United States the feelings of true sorrow with which our sovereign lord and his government are penetrated by so fatal an occurrence.

God save your excellency!

CONDE D’AVILA.

Señor Joaquin Cesar de Figaniere e Morao.