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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 22

Note from the Moniteur of the 30th April 1865.

April 30, 1865

[Translation.]

The king ordered one of his aides-de-camp to go to Mr. Sanford’s and express to him the sorrow his Majesty felt at the news of the attacks on the President and Secretary of State of the United States of America.

His highness the Count of Flanders also sent one of his aides to the minister, on the same mission.

The minister of foreign affairs and other members of the cabinet, on their part, hastened to call on Mr. Sanford, and instructions were sent to the Belgian legation in Washington to express to the American government the sentiments of regret and condemnation excited by such odious acts.

In the house, session of yesterday, Mr. Hardy de Beaulieu spoke in the most moving terms of the emotions produced in Belgium by the news of the tragic event which has just occurred in the United States. He called general attention to all the eminent virtues of President Lincoln.

Mr. De Haerne joined Mr. De Beaulieu in a eulogy of much beauty upon the character of the late lamented President.

The minister of foreign affairs added, that the government sympathized sincerely in the sentiments just expressed by the honorable members, and that he had already despatched a communication of that effect to the government of the United States, and to their honorable representatives in Brussels. He expressed the most fervent wishes for the recovery of the distinguished statesman, Mr. Seward, whose life was necessary to the final pacification of a country that had been so long ravaged by the desolation of war, and the prosperity of which was greatly desired by all friends of liberty.