[Translation.] NEW YORK, June 14, 1865. SIR: I have received by the European mail of yesterday a despatch from my government, dated 18th May, which charges me to express to his Excellency President Johnson, the felicitations of my august court on the occasion of his advent to the presidency of the United States. Finding myself still not in condition, in consequence of the breaking of my arm, to go to Washington to acquit myself of these orders of my court, I take the liberty to send to you, Mr. Secretary of State, the above-mentioned despatch, in the original, begging you to place it before his Excellency the President. Let me be allowed to add, that I participate in the most lively manner in the sentiments of which I am charged by Count de Mensdorff, to be the interpreter in respect to yourself, and that I offer the most sincere wishes for the complete restoration of that health so precious in so many aspects. Begging you, Mr. Secretary of State, to return to me, after using it, the aforesaid despatch, I seize this occasion to reiterate to you the assurance of my most distinguished consideration. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. WYDENBRUCK. [Translation.] VIENNA, May 18, 1865. BARON: I have received the despatches you have done me the honor to address to me up to the 2d instant. By one of these despatches you transmit a copy of the note of the Acting Secretary of State, Mr. William Hunter, enclosing the official announcements of the tragic events of the 14th April, and of the advent of Mr. Andrew Johnson to the presidency of the United States, as well as the answer you made to that communication. Having already previously had occasion to request you, baron, to signify to the government of the United States, the deep share we have taken in the calamity which has plunged the American people in sorrow, it remains now that I should ask you to express to Mr. Andrew Johnson our felicitations on the occasion of his accession, which we hope will not bring about any change in the relations, so satisfactory, which subsisted between the two countries during the presidency of Mr. Lincoln. Please, baron, to say to Mr. Seward, when occasion may offer, how happy we are to hear of the progress of his cure, and accept the assurance of my distinguished consideration. BARON DE WYDENBRUCK, Washington. MENSDORFF. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF AUSTRIA, MR. SECRETARY: I can scarcely find words to express my consternation at the news of the tragic event, the subject of your respected missive of this day, which deprived President Lincoln of his life. No one participates more sincerely than I do in lamenting the sad catastrophe that has filled the American nation with mourning; for, though but recently arrived in this country, I had learned to appreciate the rare and eminent qualities of him whose loss we deplore this day. It is my painful duty to announce the sad news to my august court. It will certainly be received with a feeling of affliction; and I think I may add that the entire Austrian nation will sympathize deeply with the American people in their distress for the great calamity that has overwhelmed them. The abominable attempt upon the lives of the Secretary of State and his son has also filled me with horror. I thank Heaven the crime was not accomplished; and I sincerely desire the speedy and perfect recovery of the intended victims. I will also hasten to inform my august court of the inauguration of Mr. Andrew Johnson as President of the United States. Have the kindness to accept the expression of my most distinguished consideration. Hon. WILLIAM HUNTER, Acting Secretary of State. [Translation] WYDENBRUCK. BIELITZ, AUSTRIA, April 29, 1865. MR. PRESIDENT: We, the undersigned, members of associations of the several branches of commerce and industry in the contiguous cities of Bielitz and Biala, in the interior of the Austrian dominions, who have always followed with the liveliest interest and the sincerest sympathy all the events that affected the country and the people of the United States, take the liberty to beg of you, Mr. President, to receive the expression of our most heartfelt sympathy for the terrible loss the Union has sustained in the death of President Lincoln. Amidst our rejoicings over the triumph of the Union we received the intelligence of this great calamity. Sorrow and deep affliction followed our exultation, and the deepest abhorrence for the terrible crimes to which this great and wise man fell a sacrifice, and which brought his faithful co-laborer in the difficult undertaking, the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, to the brink of the grave, fills every heart. With terrible violence the noble leader was deprived of the happiness to enjoy with his self-sacrificing and devoted people, after the most tremendous strug gle, the fruits of a long hoped for peace. May the final complete victory of the good cause and the great work of reestablishing the Union to its former greatness be reserved for you, Mr. President. That reverence for law and justice, as well as love for liberty, which the people of the United States have ever manifested during this great war, will support you. With feelings of the inmost sympathy we beg to assure you of our most distinguished consideration. Hon. ANDREW JOHNSON, LUDWIG BRÜLL, AND 26 OTHERS. President United States, North America. Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward. No. 101.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: The news of the great tragedy which has brought desolation upon our country, in the very moment of our highest joy, reached this place on the 26th. This is the first post which leaves Vienna since the receipt of the intelligence. I shall not even attempt to picture the consternation which the event has caused throughout the civilized world, nor to describe the anguish which it has excited in my own heart as in that of every loyal American, whether at home or abroad. The European public spontaneously expresses in every public way its admiration for the character of the murdered President, and its horror at the vile assassin who has taken his life. And if the inhabitants of foreign and distant lands are giving expressions to such deep and unaffected sentiments, what must be the emotions now sweeping over our own country? I confess that I shudder at the thought of the despatches and journals now on their way to Europe. As yet we have nothing but the brief telegraphic tale of horror published by the Secretary of War, to Mr. Adams, in London, and by him transmitted to the United States legations on the continent. Not often in human history has a great nation been subjected to such a sudden couflict of passions. In the midst not of triumph nor vulgar exultation-but of deep, religious, grateful joy at the final suppression of a wicked rebellion, the redemption of the land from the perils of death and the certainty of its purification from the great curse of slavery, blessings brought about under God by the genius of our great generals, the courage of our armies, and the sagacity of our statesmen, the American people have seen their beloved and venerated chief magistrate murdered before their eyes. The eminent statesman who with such surpassing ability has guided our foreign relations during the most critical and dangerous period of our history seems, thank God, to have escaped death-if we may trust the more recent telegrams received last night-but we must await with intense anxiety the arrival of more than one post before we can feel confidence that the cowardly and murderous assault upon him in his sick bed has not after all been successful. May God grant that his invaluable life may be spared, and that the country may long have the benefit of his wise and faithful counsels. May the life of that excellent son, who has so nearly perished in the attempt to defend his father, also be preserved. What may be the effect of this sudden revulsion in the national feeling I hardly dare to contemplate. The benignant heart of the late President was filled, as we have reason to believe, with thoughts of peace and reconciliation and reunion - with feelings of compassion for the criminals, mingled with detestation of the crime, becoming the chief of a great, free, and magnanimous nation in the hour of its victory when the assassin took his life. And the country itself, conscious of its strength, seemed fully to respond to these sentiments of the President. Will not these gentler feelings give way to a desire to vengeance, to a conviction of the necessity of terrible severity, now that the great treason has just accomplished its darkest crime, now that the most illustrious of all the innumerable victims of the slaveholders' rebellion has been so basely and wantonly sacrificed? I should apologize for giving expression to these thoughts, not suitable to a formal despatch, but in such days as these, and in the midst of such a national sorrow, it is difficult to be formal and impossible to be calm. Nor can I resist the impulse to add my humble contribution to the universal eulogy which I know is pouring forth at this moment from so many more eloquent tongues than mine, and out of so many millions of sorrowing and affectionate hearts, now that the most virtuous of chief magistrates is no more. I know that one should avoid the language of exaggeration, of over-excited enthusiasm so natural when a man eminent in station, mental abilities, and lofty characteristics is suddenly taken away; yet I am not afraid to express the opinion that the name of Abraham Lincoln will be cherished, so long as we have a history, as one of the wisest, purest, and noblest magistrates, as one of the greatest benefactors to the human race, that have ever lived. I believe that the foundation of his whole character was a devotion to duty. To borrow a phrase from his brief and simple but most eloquent inaugural address of this year, it was his firmness in the right as God gave him to see the right" which enabled him to discharge the functions of his great office, in one of the most terrible periods of the world's history, with such rare sagacity, patience, cheerfulness, and courage. And God, indeed, gave him to see the right, and he needs no nobler epitaph than those simple words from his own lips. So much firmness with such gentleness of heart, so much logical acuteness with such almost childlike simplicity and ingenuousness of nature, so much candor to weigh the wisdom of others with so much tenacity to retain his own judgment, were rarely before united in one individual. Never was such vast political power placed in purer hands; never did a heart remain more humble and more unsophisticated after the highest prizes of earthly ambition had been obtained. Certainly "government of the people, by the people, for the people"-to quote again his own words-shall never perish from the earth so long as the American people can embody itself in a character so worthy to represent the best qualities of humanity-its courage, generosity, patience, sagacity, and integrity as these have been personified in him who has been one of the best of rulers, and is now one of the noblest of martyrs. If it seems superfluous and almost presumptuous that I, a comparative stranger to Mr. Lincoln, although honored with his commission, should speak of him thus at length to those who shared his counsels and enjoyed his intimacy, I can only reply that the grief which, in common with every loyal American, I most profoundly feel at his death, demands an expression, and that at this distance from my country it is a consolation for me to speak of his virtues to those who knew him best. I have followed his career, and have studied every public act and utterance of his with an ever-increasing veneration for a character and an intellect which seemed to expand and to grow more vigorous the greater the demand that was made upon their strength. And this feeling, I believe, is shared not only by all Americans worthy of the name, but by all the inhabitants of foreign lands who have given themselves the trouble to study our history in this its most eventful period. I wish to conclude this despatch by requesting you to convey my most respectful compliments to President Johnson, together with my prayers for his success in administering the affairs of his great office. That he is animated with the warmest patriotism, and by a determination to meet wisely and manfully the great responsibility which has devolved upon him, we are all convinced, and I am sure that the best wishes of every patriotic heart and the counsels of the wisest minds will be ever ready to support him in the great task of reconstructing that blessed Union which traitor hands have failed, with all their efforts, to destroy. I have the honor to remain, respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington. Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward. No. 102.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Vienna, April 30, 1865. SIR: The impression created in this capital by the horrible murder and attempts to murder just committed in Washington has been intense. The whole diplomatic corps, with scarcely an exception, have called upon me as representative of the United States, and their warm and sincere expressions of sympathy at our national loss, of cordial good-will for the Union, and, more important than all, of decided respect and admiration for the character of our lamented President, have been most grateful to my heart. The journals of the capital-all of them, as I have often had occasion to remark, conducted with great ability-have vied with each other in eloquent tributes to the virtues of Mr. Lincoln, in expressions of unaffected sympathy for the great cause of which he was the impersonation, and of horror at the accursed crime by which one of the best of men has been taken from the world. I enclose, marked A and B, the correspondence between the minister of foreign affairs and myself in relation to this event. I send, further, a translation, marked C, of the report taken from the journals of the day of the action taken on the subject in the Reichsrath. Dr. Berger, the member who pronounced the brief but feeling enlogy upon Mr. Lincoln, is one of the most distinguished and eloquent members of the house. I have the honor to remain, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, J. LOTHROP MOTLEY. Secretary of State. |