PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL.

CITY OF BOSTON, April 17, 1865.

A SPECIAL meeting of the City Council of Boston was convened at twelve o'clock this day, by order of His Honor, Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr., Mayor, for the purpose of expressing their respect to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the late President of the United States.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN.

There were present at this meeting the Mayor and all the Aldermen.

The Board having been called to order by the Mayor, he spoke as follows:

TO THE HONORABLE THE CITY COUNCIL :

GENTLEMEN: Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, expired at Washington on the morning of April 15, between the hours of seven and eight o'clock. The death of one so distinguished, whose eminent services for the last four years have been so valuable to his country, and whose individual opinions and actions were considered so vital to its future welfare, has filled the Nation's heart

with gloom. In the midst of the jubilant and excited feelings of a grateful people, bound to him with dearer ties than ever before in his career, his connection with them has been suddenly severed by the violent hands of an assassin. The fresh joy of the recent glorious victories. of our armies, securing, we trusted, peace and prosperity to a reunited country, has unexpectedly been turned to mourning.

The shouts of an exultant people are hushed, and the stern discipline of sorrow is once more to test their character and to prove their manhood. Called to the Chief Magistracy of the nation at a time of unexampled trial, when the Union of our fathers was threatened with disruption by degenerate sons, the loyal spirit of the country responded time and time again to his patriotic appeals. His talents and his practical virtues seemed to develop and strengthen with the new exigencies which called for their exercise; and at the moment when success was crowning our efforts, the GREAT LEADER was summoned away, and his office and his great trusts fall upon another.

President Lincoln's career will ever be considered as one of the best illustrations of the character and nature of Republican institutions. He was emphatically a man of the people. Born in an humble condition, he was never tempted to rise by a sordid ambition for place; but yet he was ever ready to meet public responsibilities, when the country demanded his services. His merits as a statesman and patriot have been tested in the most momentous period in the history of the Republic. His integrity and worth as a man were seldom called in question while he lived,

and now that he has gone, his memory will be held in blessed remembrance by his countrymen, and especially by that race whose shackles of slavery were broken during his administration, and who will cherish his name as that of their great Liberator.

He has conducted us safely through the checkered career of the greatest civil war known in the history of the world; and at the time of his decease his clear and honest intellect was engaged upon those great and difficult problems of statesmanship which, after such a conflict, appertain to a condition of peace. At times when disaster befell our arms, or confusion attended our councils, and the timid were disposed to give up in despair, his faith never wavered in the final success of the cause, new difficulties aroused new energies, and, relying upon the patriotism of the people, he moved on with a resolute will, in the work which Providence had placed in his hands for the salvation of the nation.

The great responsibilities of his position, he bore with complacency and good humor. His physical frame, which was developed in early manhood, fitted him for the unparalleled labors of his public trust; and his tragic death was caused by that fell spirit of treason and disloyalty, which, had it not been for his efforts, might likewise have been the death of the nation.

The Republic has lost its chief officer;- every patriot feels that he has lost a personal friend. We finite beings cannot fathom the wisdom of the great calamity. He that ruleth over the nations of the earth must be our abiding trust. To the family of the late President, our heartfelt sympathies and condolence should be tendered.

3

In common with the whole nation, this community joins in the general sorrow; and in order that you may officially take that public notice of the event which the occasion demands, I have called the members of the City Council together in special session.

Your wisdom will suggest the most appropriate manner for the city of Boston to honor the memory of the distinguished dead.

F. W. LINCOLN, JR., Mayor.

At the conclusion of the Mayor's Address, Alderman George W. Messinger, Chairman of the Board, spoke as follows: —

It is with no ordinary emotions, Mr. Mayor, that I rise to offer the resolutions pertinent to this occasion. The sudden shock which our entire community experienced at the reception of the astounding reports from Washington; the mingled feelings of grief, of horror, and of indignation, have scarcely yet subsided; the repose and reflections incident to the Sabbath may have served to calm and tranquillize, but only to bring forth a more realizing sense of the irreparable loss which the nation has sustained by the death of its Chief Magistrate.

At the very time when the Rebellion appears subdued, when the days of battle are numbered and the horrors of war are to give way to the blessings of peace, when the restoration or reconstruction of our glorious Union is so evident, that great and good man, at the head of our nation, whose sound judgment and valuable counsels were so much relied on, is stricken down by the hand of the