Joy Morris to Ali Pacha, May 2, 1865
Mr. Morris to Ali Pacha
Highness: I have had the honor to receive the letter which your Highness, by order of your august sovereign, addressed me on the 1st of May, in expression of profound grief of his imperial Majesty on learning the sad news of the cruel death of President Lincoln and the wounding of the Secretary of State.
I beg your Highness to be so good as to convey to his imperial Majesty my respectful thanks for this manifestation of his regrets on an occasion which has so deeply afflicted the hearts of a whole nation. This event is the more to be regretted as it came at a moment when a desolating civil war of four years’ duration, involving alike the best interests of humanity and the American people, had been brought to a successful termination by the energy, wisdom, and firmness of purpose of President Lincoln, with the efficient co-operation of that accomplished statesman, Mr. Seward, and his colleagues in the cabinet, and by the valor and skill of our citizen soldiers and their commanders. It was hoped that these two distinguished men would have been permitted by Divine Providence to live to perfect in peace the re-establishment of that Union in defence of which so much blood had been poured out on the field of battle. In His inscrutable wisdom He has otherwise ordained.
I would also thank the imperial government for its sympathy in favor of the United States. During my residence at this court I have had frequent occasion to bear testimony to the American government of the earnest sympathy of the Ottoman government with the United States in the war for national existence in which it found itself engaged, and of the ardent desire of his Majesty the Sultan that it should terminate in the re-establishment of the Union in complete integrity, and on a firm and impregnable basis. In the hour of national calamity we have found in the Ottoman government a true and zealous friend. This new expression of its friendship only confirms its past acts, and will tend to strengthen yet more the good relations existing between the two countries.
I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your Highness the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.