President Juan Antonio Pezet

[Translation.]

Juan Antonio Pezet, constitutional President of the republic of Peru, to his Excellency the President of the United States of North America.

Department of Foreign Relations in Peru.

Sir: I comply with a necessity of my heart and with the most sacred duty in testifying to your excellency the lively and intense grief which I experienced through the unhappy event which, on the 14th day of April last, put an end to the existence of his excellency the President of your republic, Abraham Lincoln.

The very high qualities which adorned the illustrious dead, and among those which were surpassing, his judgment as a mandatory, his valor displayed during the heroic strife sustained in your country for the space of four years, and his magnanimity towards the offspring of that great people, had won for him throughout the world, and particularly in this republic, the purest sympathy and admiration; and the deplorable circumstances of his death have produced in a palpable manner among all my fellow-citizens a sentiment of profound grief, which will with difficulty be obliterated. In the midst of my sorrow I am consoled by the well-grounded hope which I cherish that you, inspired by the most ardent zeal and most intense love of your country, will reorganize very shortly, for whose preservation, progress, and prosperity I form the most cordial and sincere wishes.

  • JUAN ANTONIO PEZET.
  • PEDRO JOSÉ CALDERON.