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

Mr. Fogg to Mr. Hunter .

United States Legation,
Berne , June 20, 1865.

No. 93.]

Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith to the State Department, by the hand of Henry A. Smythe, esquire, of New York, appointed bearer of despatches to Washington, two bound volumes^* containing over 300 original addresses of congratulation, sympathy and condolence from the various cantonal governments, municipalities, communes, associations, schools and leading citizens of Switzerland expressive of the universal joy occasioned by the triumphant suppression of the rebellion in the United States, the destruction of slavery, and the re-establishment of the American Union, and of the quite as universal sorrow over the assassination of the late President Lincoln, the events of whose life, and the moment and manner of whose death, will enshrine him in the pantheon of history as the most illustrious character of modern times.

The volumes contain official addresses from the governments of twenty-one cantons, (all save one, Fribourg,) something more than 20,000 original autographs, comprising all the members of the Federal Council, members of the cantonal governments, magistrates, clergymen and military officers. In truth, they comprise the aggregate and congregate voice of all Switzerland, whose heart, hopes and prayers have been with our government in all the long, bloody, and sometimes apparently doubtful struggle through which we have passed.

As these various addresses have been sent or brought to me by delegations or committees, I have been obliged to make many brief speeches and write many letters, returning thanks in behalf of the government and people of the United States, for a sympathy as sincere and deep as it was universal.

Trusting that these addresses and memorials will be sacredly preserved in the archives of the State Department, as evidence of the solidarity of sentiments and aspirations between the people of Switzerland and those of the United States,

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

GEORGE G. FOGG.

Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State of the United States of America.

1. The addresses referred to in this despatch are published in an alphabetical arrangement based upon the names of the towns from which they emanated.