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  3. 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
  4. Document 1029

Germania of the Golden Horn Masonic Lodge of Constantinople

[Translation.]

Constantinople, June 7, 1865.

Letter to the United States minister at Constantinople from members of a German masonic lodge in that city.

The undersigned, members of the German masonic lodge entitled the Germania of the Golden Horn in this city, have the honor to express their sincere condolence with the people of the United States of America for the death of their President, Abraham Lincoln.

Your compatriots are not alone in deploring that great misfortune; their grief is felt and shared by the entire universe, by all true friends of humanity, and especially by members of the masonic order, as they have lost a brother in the person of the illustrious deceased, and they have seen but few like him since the foundation of their order.

But we are comforted with the friends of the republic with the conviction that the crime committed by a villain at the instigation of a band of fanatics, has not interrupted the even march of events.

The enemies of the republic have given it a terrible blow, but its children have defended it bravely, and have shown that the free man never loses courage in the most serious events of life, and that liberty and order in a republic do not depend on the existence of a single man.

The immense sacrifices and enormous losses suffered by the people of the United States have produced a good result; the republic has come out of the five years struggle greater and more powerful than ever; its enemies tremble, and in their fright forget their former feelings.

And events have produced a still more glorious sequel: slavery, that crime against the dignity of human nature, is no more; its stain no longer dims the brilliancy of the star-spangled banner of the American Union, that will now wave more grand and glorious.

Abraham Lincoln lived long enough to witness the success of his cause. The last moments of him whom we deplore were solaced by the triumph of liberty and humanity, of which he was a martyr.

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In asking you to accept this sincere expression of our sentiments, we send our best wishes for the prosperity of your great and beautiful country, hoping it may continue to be the asylum of liberty and the defence of the oppressed.

Receive the assurances of our distinguished consideration.

Signatures to the original.

  • G. TREU,
    for the Venerable, now absent.
  • SIEGFRIED KURLAENDER,
    Venerable.
  • Dr. E. M. WEINBERG.
  • T. SAXL.
  • M. STOENESEN.
  • BREDE.
  • F. G. HELM.
  • C. MAUBACH.
  • PETER LEHRENBECHER.
  • MARTIN MASCHEK.
  • T. MÖSNER.
  • CARL LAMPERT.
  • GEORGES DEMPWOLFF.
  • JOHANN FILZ.
  • CARL HUMANN.
  • H. STEFFENS.
  • A. SEMADENI