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

Chancellor of the University of Oxford

St. James Square, May 6, 1865.

The Chancellor of Oxford to Mr. Adams.

Sir: As chancellor of the University of Oxford, I have the honor of transmitting to you an address under the seal of the university, unanimously adopted by convocation, expressive of their condolence with the government and the people of the United States on the calamity which has recently befallen them in the assassination of the President; their abhorrence of the act of the assassination; their friendly feeling towards a kindred nation, and their earnest prayers for the restoration of peace and national prosperity to your now suffering country. It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to assure your excellency of my entire personal concurrence in the sentiments of which I am made the official organ; but the departure on this occasion by the university from its almost invariable practice will afford an additional proof, if any were required, of the strength and genuineness of the feelings which this atrocious crime and lamentable catastrophe have evoked from all classes and all shades of political opinions, from the sovereign downward, throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, your excellency’s most obedient servant,

DERBY.

His Excellency Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
Minister of the United States.