Charles Feancis Adams to Right Hon. Earl Russell, May 1, 1865

[Enclosure.]

1. Mr. Adams to Lord Russell, May 1, 1865.

2. Lord Russell to Mr. Adams, May 1, 1865.

3. The Times, Maya, 1865.

4. Circular from Mr. Adams to United States consuls, announcing the death of President Lincoln, May 2, 1865.

Mr. Adams to Earl Russell

My Lord: It is with deep concern that I hasten to communicate to your lordship the painful intelligence I have just officially received of the death of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, who was assassinated in Washington city on the evening or the 14th ultimo, and expired the next morning from the effects of the wound.

In communicating this melancholy event I feel persuaded that your lordship and the British nation will not fail to participate in the general grief into which this sudden calamity has plunged the people of the United States.

I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration with which

I have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship’s most obedient servant,

Earl Russell to Mr. Adams

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your note of this day’s date, officially communicating to me the melancholy intelligence of the death by the hand of an assassin of the late President of the United States.

When the first intelligence of this sad calamity reached this country I conveyed to you by letter and in person the deep impression of horror and indignation which so atrocious a crime on the President of the United States had made upon me and on the several member of her Majesty’s government, and it only remains for me now, in acknowledging your letter, to acquaint you that, by the command of the Queen, I have directed her Majesty’s minister at Washington to convey to the government of the United the assurance that her Majesty sincerely condoles with the family of the late President, and that her Majesty’s government and the British Parliament and the British nation are affected by a unanimous feeling of abhorrence of the criminal guilty of this cowardly and atrocious assassination, and their sympathy with the government and people of the United States under the great calamity which has befallen them.

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

[Circular.]

Sir: Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, expired at Washington on the morning of the 15th of April last. The fearful circumstances attending his death, as communicated in a telegraphic despatch addressed to me by Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, have been, by my direction, already brought to your attention in the newspapers so extensively that it is iunnecessary now to repeat them.

The eminent personal qualities of Mr. Lincoln, displayed in the course of a period full of severe trials, the integrity of his character, and the heroic firmness with which he persevered in his policy until it was crowned with success, are now fully acknowledged, not only among his fellow-citizens at home, but by all foreign nations.

In token of the regret universally felt for this national loss, as well as in honor to the memory of the deceased, under the directions of the proper authorities at Washington I have to request the consuls of the United States, the vice-consuls, and others in official station within this jurisdiction, to wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months from the date of this notification, and to display the flags of their respective consulates on the day and for the three following days succeeding the receipt of this communication at half mast, as well as to cause the masters of American vessels in their ports to hoist their flags in the same way for the same period.

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

[Untitled]

HOUSE OF LORDS—Monday, May 1.

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Earl Russell (who was very indistinctly heard) said: My lords, I rise to ask your lord ships to address her Majesty, praying that in any communications which her Majesty may make to the government of the United States, expressing her abhorrence and regret at the great crime which has been committed in the murder of the President of that country, her Majesty will at the same time express the sorrow and indignation felt by this house at that atrocious deed. In this case I am sure your lordships will feel entire sympathy with her Majesty, who has instructed me already to express to the government of the United States the shock which she felt at the intelligence of the great crime which has been committed. [Hear, hear.] Her Majesty has also been pleased to write a private letter to Mrs. Lincoln [cheers] expressive of sympathy with that lady in her misfortune. [Cheers.] I think that your lordships will agree with me that in modern, times there has hardly been a crime committed so abhorrent to the feelings of every civilized person as the one I am now alluding to. [Hear, hear.] After the first election of Mr. Lincoln as President of the United States, he was re-elected to the same high position by the large majority of the people remaining faithful to the government of the United States, and he was in the discharge of the duties of his office, having borne his faculties meekly, at the moment when an assassin attacked him at the theatre. There are circumstances connected with this crime which, I think, aggravate its atri city. President Lincoln was a man who, though not conspicuous before his election, had since displayed a character of so much integrity, so much sincerity and straight-forwardness, and at the same time of so much kindness, that if any one was able to alleviate the pain and animosities which prevailed during the period of civil war, I believe that Abraham Lincoln was that person. It was remarked of President Lincoln that he always felt disinclined to adopt harsh measures, and I am told that the commanders of his armies often complained that, when they had passed a sentence which they thought no more than just, the President was always disposed to temper its severity. Such a man this particular epoch requires. The conduct of the armies of the United States was intrusted to other hands, and on the commanders fell the responsibility of leading the armies in the field to victory. They had been successful against those they had to contend with, and the moment had come when, undoubtedly, the responsibilities of President Lincoln were greatly increased by their success. But, though it was not for him to lead the armies, it would have been his to temper the pride ‘of victory, to assuage the misfortunes which his adversaries had experienced, and especially to show, as he was well qualified to show, that high respect for valor on the opposite side which has been so conspicuously displayed. It was to be hoped that by such qualities, when the conflict of arms was over, the task of conciliation might have been begun, and President Lincoln would have an authority which no one else could have had to temper that exasperation which always arises in the course of civil strife. [Hear, hear.] Upon another question the United States and the confederates will have a most difficult task to perform. I allude to the question of slavery, which some have always maintained to have been the cause of the civil war. At the beginning the House will remember that President Lincoln declared that he had no right by the Constitution to interfere with slavery. At a later period he made a communication to the commander-in-chief of the United States forces in which he proposed that in certain States the slaves should be entirely free; but at a later period he proposed, what he had a constitutional qualification to, propose, that there should be an alteration in the Constitution of the United States, by which compulsory labor should hereafter be forbidden. I remember that Lord Macaulay once declared that it would have been a great blessing if the penal laws against the Catholics had been abolished from the time of Sir R. Walpole, though Sir R. Walpole would have been mad to propose a measure for that purpose. So the same may be said of slavery, though I believe that the United States were justified in delaying the time when that great alteration of the United States law should take place. But. whatever we may think on these subjects, we must all deeply deplore that the death of President Lincoln has deprived the United States of a man, a leader on this subject, who by his temper was qualified to propose such a measure as might have made this great change acceptable to those before opposed to it, and might have preserved the peace of the great republic of America while undergoing that entire new organization which would be necessary under such circumstances. [Hear.] I think we must all feel both sympathy with the United States in this great affiiction, and also a hope that he who is now, according to the American Constitution, intrusted with the power of the late President, may be able both on the one subject and on the other—both in respect to mercy and leniency towards the conquered, and also with regard to the measures to be adopted for the new organization which the abolition of slavery will render requisite—to overcome all difficulties. I had some time ago, at the commencement of this contest, occasion to say that I did not believe that the great republic of America would perish in this war, and the noble lord at the head of the government had lately occasion to disclaim on the part of the government of this country any feeling of envy at the greatness and prosperity of the United States. The course which her Majesty’s government have had to pursue during this civil war has been one of great anxiety. Difficulties have occurred to us, and difficulties have also occurred to the government of the United States, in maintaining the peaceful relations between the two countries; but those difficulties have always been treated with temper and moderation both on this side and the other side of the Atlantic. I trust that that temper and moderation may continue, and I can assure this House that, as we have always been guided by the wish that the American government and the American people should settle for themselves the conflict of arms without any interference of ours, so likewise during the attempt that has to be made to restore peace and tranquillity to America we shall equally refrain from any kind of interference or intervention, though we trust that the efforts to be made for restoring peace will be successful, and that the great republic of America will always flourish and enjoy the freedom it, has hitherto enjoyed. [Hear, hear.] I have nothing to say with regard to the successor of Mr. Lincoln. Time must show how far he is able to conduct the difficult matters which Will come under his consideration with the requisite wisdom. All I can say is that, in the presence of the great crime which has just been committed, and of the great calamity which has fallen on the American nation, the Crown, the Parliament, and the people of this country do feel the deepest interest for the government and people of the United States; for, owing to the nature of the relations between the two nations, the misfortunes of the United States affect us more than the misfortunes of any other country on the face of the globe. [Hear, hear.] The noble earl concluded by moving an humble address to her Majesty to express the sorrow and indignation of this House at the assassination of the President of the United States, and to pray her Majesty to communicate these sentiments on the part of this House to the government of the United States,.

The Earl of Derby. My lords, when, upon the last occasion of our meeting, the noble earl opposite announced his intention of bringing forward the motion he has now submitted to the House, I ventured to express my hope that the government had well considered the form of the motion they were going to make, so that there might be nothing in the form which would in the slightest degree interfere with the unanimity desirable on such an occasion. It would have been more satisfactory to me if the noble earl had entered somewhat upon the consideration of the question, and had informed your lordships upon what grounds he proposed so unusual a course—though arising, I admit, out of unusual, if not unprecedented, circumstances—as that of addressing the Crown, and praying her Majesty to convey to a foreign government the sentiments of Parliament with regard to the event which has taken place. For myself, I confess that I am rather of the opinion that the more convenient and—I will not say the more usual, but—the more regular course would have been to have simply moved a resolution of this, in conjunction with the other house of Parliament, expressing those feelings which it is proposed by the motion to place in the form of an address to the Crown. [Hear.] But I am so extremely desirous that there should not appear to be the slightest difference of opinion at this moment [hear] that I cannot hesitate to give my assent to the form proposed by the government, whatever doubt I may entertain that the form is the most convenient which might have been adopted. In joining in this address—that is to say, in expressing our sorrow and indignation at the atrocious crime by which the United States have been deprived of their Chief Magistrate—your lordships will only follow, though the event has been known so short a time, the universal feeling of sympathy which has been expressed from one end of this kingdom to the other. [Hear, hear.] And if there be in the United States any persons who, misled by our having abstained from expressing any opinion as to the conflict now going on, or even from expressing the opinon we may have formed upon the merits of the two great contending parties—if there be any persons who believe that there is a generally unfriendly feeling in this country towards the citizens of the United States, I think they could hardly have had a more complete refutation of that opinion [cheers,] conveyed in what I hope will be the unanimous declaration of Parliament, following the declarations which her Majesty has been pleased to make both publicly and privately to the American minister as well as to the widow of president Lincoln, and again following the voluntary and spontaneous expression of opinion which has already proceeded from almost all the great towns and communities of this country. [Hear, hear.] Whatever other misfortunes may have attended this atrocious crime, I hope that, at least, one good effect may have resulted from it-— namely, that the manner in which the news has been received in this country will satisfy the people of the United States that her Majesty’s subjects, one and all, deeply condemn the crime which has been committed, and deeply sympathize with the people of the United States in their feelings of horror at the assassination of their Chief Magistrate. [Hear, hear.] For the crime itself there is no palliation whatever to be offered. There may be differences of opinion as to the merits of the two parties who are contending, the one for empire and the other for independence, in the United States—I follow the words of the noble earl opposite; but there is, there can be, no difference of opinion upon this point: that the holiest and the purest of all causes is desecrated and disgraced when an attempt is made to promote it by measures so infamous as this. [Hear, hear.] If it were possible to believe that the con-federate authorities encouraged, sympathized with, or even did not express their abhorrence of this crime, I should say they had committed that which was worse than a crime—a gross blunder; because, in the face of the civilized world, a cause which required or submitted to be promoted by the crime of assassination would lose all sympathy and kindly feeling on the part of those who might otherwise be well disposed towards it. But I am perfectly satisfied—I am as well satisfied as I can be of anything, that this detestable act of assassination is so entirely alien to the whole spirit in which the south have conducted this war [cheers,] is so alien to the courageous, manly, and at the same time forbearing course which they have adopted in the struggle for everything that is dear to them, that t am convinced that, apart from the error of judgment which would be involved in sanctioning such a crime, they can not have been guilty of so great a blunder, and cannot fail to express for it their detestation, and to feel at the same time that no step could have been taken which could have inflicted so great an injury on their own cause. [Hear, hear.] I will not venture to follow the noble earl even into the slight discussion which he has originated with regard to the internal politics of the United States. I will not discuss the difficulty which at the present moment is felt in the United States—the difficulty caused by slavery. I will not express any opinion as to the question whether the late defeats, serious as they are, and apparently fatal to the cause of the south, have produced, or are likely to lead to, an early termination of the war. In whatever way the war may be terminated, it must be the desire of every friend of humanity that it should be terminated soon and without further and unnecessary effusion of blood. But I join entirely with the noble earl in lamenting the loss of a man who had conducted the affairs of a great nation, under’ circumstances of great difficulty, with singular moderation and prudence, and who, I believe, was bent upon trying to the utmost a system as conciliatory as was consistent with the prosecution of the war in which the country was engaged. I agree that the death of such a man, in such a, manner, and at such a time, is a subject not only for deep regret and for abhorrence of the crime by which he was deprived of life, but that it is also a serious misfortune, in the present condition of affairs, for the state over which he exercised authority and for the prospects of an amicable settlement. [Hear, hear.] I can only hope that, notwithstanding some ominous expressions which have already fallen from him, the successor who has so unexpectedly been elevated to the high position filled by Mr. Lincoln may be disposed and enabled to follow the wise and conciliatory course which, I believe, in the prospect of success, Mr. Lincoln had decided upon adopting. [Hear.] I am not insensible to the danger that public exasperation arising out of this act may force upon the government a less conciliatory and more violent course than that which Mr. Lincoln seemed to have marked out for himself; but I am satisfied that the adoption of such a course can only further protract the horrors of this civil war, adding to the other motives of the south the most powerful of all motives—the motive of despair—leading the south to fight out this question to the bitter end, so that while the one side is exasperated into desire to exterminate its opponents, they, in their despair, will be ready to submit to extermination, rather than accept the unreasonable terms of the north, [Hear, hear.] Thus in the act itself, in the circumstances under which this, crime has been committed, and in the fatal influences which it may exercise upon the returning prospects of peace in the United States, we must find reasons for deeply lamenting the occurrence which has taken place; and I am quite sure that, independently of all political motives, but not saying that political motives do not enter into our views, I am expressing the universal feeling of this House and of the country when I say that we view with horror, with detestation, and with indignation the atrocious crime by which the life of the President of the United States has been ended. [Cheers.]

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. My lords: In consideration of my residence in the United States of America—at a somewhat distant period, it is true, but nevertherless in the character of a British representative—I hope I may be allowed to offer a few words in addition to those which have been so ably and justly expressed on both sides of the House. I cannot pretend to make any addition of real importance to what has been said already with so much effect, and it is therefore only for the gratification of a private feeling and for the discharge, as it were, of a personal debt, that I venture to claim your lordships’ indulgence for a few moments. The crime of assassination is so utterly revolting to the hearts and feelings of Englishmen, that we cannot wonder at the cry of horror and indignation with which the death of President Lincoln has been received in this country throughout the breadth and length of the land. The circumstances under which that atrocious crime was perpetrated could not but heighten the abhorrence with which the act itself is to be viewed. Whether we look to the private affliction caused by its commission, or to the public consequences which may flow from the catastrophe, our compassion on the one side, and our anxiety on the other, is naturally roused to the highest degree. It is not in my province to pronounce any kind of judgment on the qualities, the conduct, or the intentions of the late President of the United States. It would be unkind and unworthy not to give him credit for the best claims on our esteem and regret. But when I figure to myself the chief magistrate, the temporary sovereign of a great nation, struck down by a sudden and dastardly blow in the presence of his astounded family, in the first moments of relaxation from the toils and severe anxieties of a great civil contest, and in the midst of those who gave him their admiring acclamations, every thought is lost in one overpowering sentiment of horror and disgust. [Hear, hear.] At the time of my personal acquaintance with America the relations between the different portions of the Union were such as to promise a long series of peaceful and prosperous years. The dreadful rupture which took place on the election of the late lamented President could hardly have been foreseen by the most sagacious and far-sighted politician. This country, as we all know, was seized with unfeigned astonishment and deep concern at the unexpected event; and I must do her Majesty’s government the justice to say that during the whole course of the war the balance of a strict neutrality has been maintained with the most even-handed and resolute sense of duty. I am slow to believe that the people of the United States entertain towards this country the sentiments of mistrust and animosity which have been sometimes attributed to them. Of this I feel sure, that no such hostile sentiments are entertained by the people of this country towards them; and, were it Otherwise, I am persuaded that while, on this side every unpleasant feeling unaffectedly merges in sympathy for the late bereavement at Washington, so, on the other, the expression of that sympathy, pure and deep as it is, cannot fail to obliterate any impressions unfavorable to us which may have arisen in any portion of the American population. The expression of our sympathy is not confined to numerous associations in every part of the country. It now assumes the more solemn character of a parliamentary condolence, confirmed by the unanimous consent of both houses and crowned by the gracious participation of a sovereign whose sad acquaintance with sorrow is the strongest pledge of her sincerity. It is not for me to hazard any conjecture as to the cause of that atrocious crime which we all concur in lamenting, or the quarter whence it proceeded. But it is next to impossible that the gallant and highminded leaders of the one conflicting party could have descended so low as to support their imperilled cause by an assassination as base as it is execrable, and equally hard to conceive that those of the triumphant Union should entertain a suspicion at once so improbable and so unlike the magnanimity they are called upon to display. It is rather to be hoped and expected that the terrible calamity which has occurred, with such awful suddenness, will sober the agitated passions on both sides, and render acceptable to all the expressions of sympathy about to be transmitted from this country to our kindred beyond the Atlantic. [Hear, hear.]

The motion, having been put by the lord chancellor, was carried nemine contradicente.

[Untitled]

THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN,

Sir G. Grey said: I very much regret the unavoidable absence of my noble friend at the head of the government, in whose name the notice was given of the motion which it now devolves upon me to ask the House to agree to I feel, however, that it is comparatively unimportant by whom the motion is proposed, because I am confident that the address to the Crown which I am about to ask the House to agree to is one which will meet with the cordial and unanimous assent of all. [Cheers.] When the news a few days ago of the assassination of the President of the United States, and the attempted assassination—for I hope that we may now confidently expect that it will not be a successful attempt—of Mr. Seward reached this country, the first impression in the mind of every one was that the intelligence could not be true. [Cheers.] It was hoped by every one that persons could not be found capable of committing a crime so atrocious. [Hear, hear.] When the truth was forced upon us, when we could no longer entertain any doubt as to the correctness of the intelligence, the feeling which succeeded was one of universal sorrow, horror, and indignation. [Cheers.] It was felt as if some great calamity had befallen ourselves, [renewed cheering,] for in the civil war, the existence and the long continuance of which we have so sincerely deplored, it is well known that the government of this country, acting, as I believe, in accordance with the almost unanimous, or perhaps I may say, in accordance with the unanimous feeling of this country, had maintained a strict and impartial neutrality. But it is notorious, and it could not in a great country like this be otherwise, that different opinions have been entertained by different persons with regard to the questions at issue between the northern and southern States of America, but still I believe that the sympathies of the majority of the people of this country have been with the north. [Cries of “No, no,” “Hear, hear,” and “Question, question.”] I am desirous on this occasion of avoiding everything which may excite any difference of opinion. I may say, therefore, that in this free country different opinions have been entertained and different sympathies felt, and that in this free country the freest expression has been given, as should be the case, to those differences of opinion. [Hear, hear.] I am sure I shall raise no controversy when I say in the presence of that great crime which has sent a thrill of horror through every one who heard of it, all difference of opinion, all conflicting sympathies for a moment entirely vanished. [Loud cheers.] I am anxious to say at once, and I desire to proclaim that belief with the strongest confidence, that this atrocious crime was regarded by every man of influence and power in the southern States with the same degree of horror which it excited in every other part of the world. [Loud cheers.] We may, therefore—and this is all I wish to say upon this subject— whatever our opinions with regard to the past, and whatever our sympathies may have been— we shall all cordially unite in expressing our abhorrence of that crime, and in rendering our sympathy to that nation which is now mourning the loss of its chosen and trustful chief, struck to the ground by the hand of an assassin, and that, too, at the most critical period of its history. [Cheers.] While lamenting that war and the loss of life which it has enevitably occasioned, it is impossible, whatever our opinions or our sympathies may have been, to withhold our admiration from the many gallant deeds performed and acts of heroism displayed by both parties in the contest, and it is a matter for bitter reflection that the page of history, recording such gallant achievements and such heroic deeds by men who so freely shed their blood on the battle-field in a cause which each considered right, should also be stained with the record of a crime such as we are now deploring. [Cheers.] At length a new era appeared to be dawning on the contest between the north and the south. The time had come when there was every reason to hope that that war would speedily be brought to a close. Victory had crowned the efforts of the statesmen and the armies of the federals, and most of us—all I hope—had turned with a feeling of some relief and some hope for the future from the record of sanguinary conflicts to that correspondence which has but recently passed between the generals commanding the hostile armies. [Cheers.] And when we turned to Mr. President Lincoln, I should have been prepared to express a hope, indeed an expectation—and I have reason to believe that that expectation would not have been disappointed—that in the hour of victory and in the use of victory he would have shown a wise forbearance, a generous consideration, which would have added ten-fold lustre to the fame and reputation which he has acquired throughout the misfortunes of this war. [Hear, hear.] Unhappily the foul deed which has taken place has deprived Mr. Lincoln of the opportunity of thus adding to his well-earned fame and reputation; but let us hope, what indeed we may repeat, that the good sense and right feeling of those upon whom will devolve the most arduous and difficult duties in this conjuncture will lead them to respect the wishes and the memory of him whom we are all mourning, [-cheers,] and will lead them to act in the same spirit and to follow the same counsels by which we have good reason to believe the conduct of Mr. Lincoln would have been marked had he survived to complete the work that was intrusted to him. [Cheers.] I am only speaking the general opinion when I say that nothing could give greater satisfaction to this country than by means of forbearance, it may be of temperate conciliation, to see the union of the north and south again accomplished, especially if it can be accomplished by common consent, freed from what hitherto constituted the weakness of that union—the curse and disgrace of slavery. [Cheers.] I wish it were possible for us to convey to the people of the United States an adequate idea of the depth and universality of the feeling which this sad event has occasioned in this country, that from the highest to the lowest there has been but one feeling entertained. Her Majesty’s minister at Washington will, in obedience to the Queen’s command, convey to the government of the United States the expression of the feelings of her Majesty and of her government upon the deplorable event; and her Majesty, with that tender consideration which she has always evinced for sorrow and suffering in others, of whatever rank, [cheers,] has with her own hand written a letter to Mrs. Lincoln, [loud cheers,] conveying the heartfelt sympathy of a widow to a widow [renewed cheers] suffering under the calamity of having lost one suddenly cut off. [Cheers.] From every part of this country, from every class, but one voice has been heard, one of abhorrence of the crime, and of sympathy for and interest in the country which has this great loss to mourn. The British residents in the United States, as of course was to be expected, lost not an hour in expressing their sympathy with the government of the United States. The people of our North American colonies are vieing with each, other in expressing the same sentiments. [Cheers.] And it is not only among men of the same race who are connected with the people of the United States by origin, language and blood, that these feelings prevail, but I believe that every country in Europe is giving expression to the same sentiments and is sending the message to the govern-ment of the United States. I am sure, therefore, that I am not wrong in anticipating that this house will, in the name of the people of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, be anxious to record their expression of the same sentiment, and to have if conveyed to the government of the United States. [Cheers.] Of this I am confident, that this house could never more fully and more adequately represent the feelings of the whole of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom than by agreeing to the address which it is now my duty to move, expressing to her Majesty our sorrow and indignation at the assassination of the President of the United States, and paying her Majesty that, in communicating her own sentiments to the government of that country upon the deplorable event, she will express at the same time, on the part of this house, their abhorrence of the crime, and their sympathy with the government and the people of the United States in the deep affliction into which they have been thrown. [Loud cheers.]

Mr. Disraeli said: There are rare instances when the sympathy of a nation approaches those tenderer feelings which are generally supposed to be peculiar to the individual, and to be the happy privilege of private life; and this is one. Under any circumstances we should have bewailed the catastrophe at Washington; under any circumstances we should have shuddered, at the means by which it was accomplished. But in the character of the victim, and even in the accessories of his last moments, there is something so homely and innocent that it takes the question, as it were, out of all the pomp of history and the ceremonial of diplomacy; it touches the heart of nations, and appeals to the domestic sentiment of mankind. [Cheers.] Whatever the various and varying opinions in this house, and in the country generally, on the policy of the late President of the United States, all must agree that in one of the severest trials which ever tested the moral qualities of man he fulfilled his duty with simplicity and strength. [Cheers.] Nor is it possible for the people of England at such a moment to forget that he sprung from the same fatherland, and spoke the same mother tongue. [Cheers.] When such crimes are perpetrated the public mind is apt to fall into gloom and perplexity, for it is ignorant alike of the causes and the consequences of such deeds. But it is one of our duties to reassure them under unreasoning panic and despondency. Assassination has never changed the history of the world. I will not refer to the remote past, though an accident has made the most memorable instance of antiquity at this moment fresh in the minds and memory of all around me. But even the costly sacrifice of a Caesar did not propitiate the inexorable destiny of his country. If we look to modern times, to times at least with the feelings of which we are familiar, and the people of which were animated and influenced by the same interests as ourselves, the violent deaths of two heroic men, Henry IV, of France, and the Prince of Orange, are conspicuous illustrations of this truth. In expressing our unaffected and profound sympathy with the citizens of the United States on this untimely end of their elected chief, let us not, therefore, sanction any feeling of depression, but rather let us express a fervent hope that from out of the awful trials of the last four years, of which the least is not this violent demise, the various populations of North America may issue elevated and chastened, rich with the accumulated wisdom and strong in the disciplined energy which a young nation, can only acquire in a protracted and perilous struggle. Then they will be enabled not merely to renew their career of power and prosperity, but they will renew it to contribute to the general happiness of mankind. [Cheers.] It is with these feelings that I second the address to the Crown. [Loud cheers.]

The motion was then put and adopted unanimously, the announcement of which fact by the speaker was received with cheers.