Frederick William to Abraham Lincoln, June 9, 1876

The Emperor William to the President.

William, by grace of God Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, &c., to the President of the United States of America:

Great and Good Friend: It has been vouchsafed to you to celebrate the Centennial festival of the day upon which the great republic over which you preside entered the rank of independent nations. The purposes of its founders have, by a wise application of the teachings of the history of the foundation of nations and with insight into the distant future, been realized by a development without a parallel. To congratulate you and the American people upon the occasion affords me so much the greater pleasure, because, since the treaty of friendship which my ancestor, of glorious memory, King Frederic II, who now rests with God, concluded with the United States, undisturbed friendship has continually existed between Germany and America, and has been developed and strengthened by the ever-increasing importance of their mutual relations, and by an intercourse becoming more and more fruitful in every domain of commerce and science. That the welfare of the United States and the friendship of the two countries may continue to increase, is my sincere desire and confident hope.

Accept the renewed assurance of my unqualified esteem.