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 Manderström to Mr. Campbell .

[Translation.]

Stockholm , April 27, 1865.

Sir: I have received the official communication by which you have confirmed this morning the melancholy intelligence, already in circulation yesterday evening, of the odious outrage to which the President of the United States fell a victim on the evening of the 14th of this month.

I have thought it my duty to bring this overwhelming news immediately to the knowledge of my august sovereign, and it is by his express order that I hasten to convey to you, sir, all the horror and profound regret with which it has inspired him. Not only the old and excellent relations which existed between the two governments, but the high esteem and the sincere consideration professed by the King for the noble character and eminent qualities of the illustrious President, who has been torn from a country to the welfare of which he was devoted, by the most atrocious crime, may easily explain the sentiments of just grief and sad sympathy with which the King is penetrated, and the reprobation with which his Majesty stamps a shameful assassination, directed by a parricidal hand against that good man.

This crime is aggravated by the infamous attack made upon the distinguished statesman, confined to his bed of suffering, and who, wounded also in his most cherished affections, seems to leave us little hope of seeing him recover from his physical and mental anguish.

The King has charged me to beg you, sir, to testify to your government the sentiments entertained by him, and which, be assured, are shared by the two peoples united under his sceptre.

In giving utterance to the most sincere wishes that this frightful misfortune does not injure the United States of America, the government of the King expresses the hope of continuing with President Johnson the same relations of confidence and amity which have been maintained under the government of the illustrious President whose loss we so bitterly deplore.

In begging you, sir, to accept the expression of my most profound personal regret, I permit myself to add the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.

MANDERSTRÖM.

Mr. Campbell,
Minister Resident of the United States of America.