Mr. Hitz to Mr. Seward .
Washington , April 15, 1865.
Sir: The national calamity which has just befallen the United States is, in all its bearings, one of such stupendous magnitude that Switzerland, in the person of her representatives, stands appalled at the enormity of the deed which deprived a republic of a Chief Magistrate who not only was first in establishing universal freedom throughout the land, foremost in offering the hand of conciliation to a misguided enemy of traitors, devotedly beloved by his countrymen, but was also respected abroad, and looked up to with confidence in every clime where freemen draws breath. When, therefor, the representative of the time-honored republic of Switzerland expresses, in her behalf, sincere sympathy for the irreparable loss sustained, just in an hour of triumph, by her great sister republic the United States, I pray it may be accepted as the heartfelt emotion of a national heart which has ever beat in unison with that of the United States, and with those great principles of free government whereof his excellency, your late esteemed President, Abraham Lincoln, appeared to be the embodiment.
Switzerland joins in the universal bereavement of freemen, and while tendering her humble offering of sympathy at the shrine of an afflicted nation, seeks to convey consolation in the assurance given, that “He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth;” wherefore these trials which Almighty God has, in the province of divine wisdom, seen proper to visit upon a free people are but an evidence of His love, and, it is prayed, harbingers of blessings evermore.
And now, sir, with feelings of inmost sympathy for your own personal and family afflictions, and gratitude to the Lord for the preservation of your invaluable life and services to a mighty yet sorely stricken nation in a most momentous epoch of its history,
I remain with sentiments sincere, though unspoken,
The Consul General of Switzerland.
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.