emancipation, and which conflicted with the character and free institutions of that great republic. "Nor have we been indifferent to the mourning in which they have been plunged by the death of their illustrious ruler, Abraham Lincoln. This melancholy event has awakened throughout the country and in the government manifestations of grief and sympathy as just as sincere." THOMAS H. NELSON. I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. No. 201. : Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward. [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR In my despatches Nos. 196 and 197, of the 1st instant, I had the honor to transmit to you numerous evidences of the very deep sympathy manifested in Valparaiso and Santiago in our great national bereavement. From that date until the present these manifestations of kind feeling have continued almost uninterruptedly. On the fourth instant, at noon, by order of the navy department and that of war, a national salute was fired, in honor of the late President of the United States, from the fort at Valparaiso, at the conclusion of which twenty-one guns were fired from the Chilian sloop-of-war Esmeralda, at intervals of two minutes, and a like salute from the fortress of Hidalgo in Santiago. An hour later a procession was formed, consisting of the fire department, with flags and apparatus draped in mourning; the society of the American Union, bearing the flags of the different American republics, also shrouded in crape, and citizens, most of them dressed in mourning, with crape upon the left arm. As the procession passed the legation, which was appropriately draped, I observed tears falling from the eyes of many, and the absolute silence and decorum of the thousands of spectators who filled the strect for squares was in itself a mute tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead. In Copiapó on the same day, the fourth instant, a very earnest demonstration of respect took place. Pursuant to a call signed by the principal citizens, the residents met at noon and proceeded, escorted by the military forming the garrison, to the almada or public walk, where, upon the uncovering of the portrait of Mr. Lincoln, a national salute was fired and appropriate discourses delivered. The national flag was hoisted upon the public and private edifices at half-mast, and salutes were fired at sunrise, noon, and sunset. Half hour guns were also fired during the day. Additional letters of condolence have also been addressed to me by the society of the Union Americana, by the Anglo-Saxon workingmen's society of Valparaiso, and by the municipality of the department of Los Andres. * * In addition to these public demonstrations, I have received very marked and numerous evidences of sympathy from private citizens, and have endeavored in return to evince my grateful sense of the universal and profound respect shown in Chili to the memory of the late President. I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS H. NELSON. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Letter from the Minister Resident of Spain. [Translation.] LEGATION OF SPAIN TO CHILI, Santiago de Chili, May 29, 1865. MY DEAR SIR: Through the newspapers which I have just received I learn with the deepest pain of the brutal assassination and horrible crime perpetrated in Washington against the most worthy President of your excellency's nation, Abraham Lincoln, and his minister, William H. Seward. As an evidence of the sincere sorrow which will be felt by my august sovereign and her government when they shall be informed of it, as well as of that experienced by myself, I immediately hoisted my flag in position of mourning. I hasten to inform your excellency of this, with the earnest assurances of distinguished consideration and regard with which I am your excellency's most obedient servant, THOMAS H. NELSON, Esq., &c. SALVADOR DE TAVIRA. Letter from the Society of Primary Instruction. [Translation.] SANTIAGO, May 30, 1865. The board of directors of the society of primary instruction, over which I have the honor to preside, resolved, upon the motion of one of its members, to address a note of condolence to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, for the death of the President of that republic, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. I comply with so sad a duty as the organ of the said board, manifesting to the minister how intense has been the grief experienced by its members in learning of the horrid and brutal crime of which the illustrious Mr. Lincoln has been the victim. Will the minister be pleased to receive this sincere expression of sympathy and the personal considerations of regard with which I subscribe myself your most obedient servant, Mr. THOMAS H. NELSON, &c. RAFAEL MINVIELLE. Secretary. Letter from the Union Club of Santiago. SANTIAGO, May 30, 1865. The Santiago Union Club has received with profound sorrow the news of the assassination perpetrated upon the person of the illustrious President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and has authorized me to transmit you expression of its grief. the Lincoln was the incarnation of modern democracy, and, perishing a victim to the partisans of slavery, has been elevated to the category of the martyrs of humanity. In communicating to you the sentiments of the members of this club, I deem it my duty to express my own, and to subscribe myself your most obedient servant, Hon. THOMAS H. NELSON, Santiago. MANUEL ALCALDE. Note from the workingmen of Santiago. [Translation.] SANTIAGO, May 30, 1865. SIR: The profound sorrow caused among the working classes of Santiago by the sad news of the crime committed upon the person of Lincoln, the honest, by the hand of an assassin, has impelled the council of the artisans' society, called the Union, to spontaneously unite last night in a session for the purpose of manifesting to your excellency the deep grief which it feels for so tragic an event. Since this society was the first to congratulate you upon the approaching termination of the war which has afflicted the great republic, it cannot view unmoved one of the most execrable crimes which have been committed in modern times by the apostles of evil. Upon me has devolved the duty, in the name of the council of the society and in that of the working classes, to manifest to you the grief experienced by them for the loss of one of the most devoted defenders of the rights of humanity, one whom with justice your fellow-citizens have called the father of his country. ous. So tragic an occurrence will awaken the indignation of honorable men, and even the sorrow of the advocates of slavery, for a deed as brutal as it was infamFrom this day forward future generations will be unable to peruse without an abundant tribute of tears the page of mourning which closes the period of blood through which the greatest and most powerful nation governed by democratic principles has just passed. The memory of Abraham Lincoln will live in the heart of humanity so long as the current of the Potomac flows or the Andes endure. This reflection may, perhaps, in some degree mitigate your own grief, and that of your fellow-countrymen. With sentiments of the most profound respect, I have the honor to offer myself as your humble servant, who prays to the Supreme Dispenser of All Good to avert from your country the evils consequent upon crimes such as astound the world. JOSE SANTOS VALENZUELA, First Vice-President. Hon. THOMAS H. NELSON, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the U. S. Translation of letter from the Union Americana, of Santiago. SIR The atrocious crime which has plunged your noble country in the most profound and just affliction cannot fail to draw forth expressions of grief from all who learn the mournful news, and such we come to utter to you in the name of the Union Americana of Santiago. We, who have rejoiced in the triumphs obtained by the soldiers of the law and the apostles of humanity in the titanic war against slavery, uniting our hopes and prayers to those of the people and government of the United Stateswe, who were preparing to join in their songs of victory and to applaud, as heretofore, their heroism in battle, their clemency in the hour of triumph-today accompany in their grief that people and government, who have lost in Mr. Lincoln one of their best and most illustrious representatives. The deplorable system which during four years has been aiming at the life of your country, and which had for its base and object the most horrible and unjustifiable iniquity, slavery, has concluded by summing up and declaring itself in the most iniquitous and inexcusable of crimes, the assassination of President Lincoln, thus confirming, as a sentence without appeal, the anathema which all free men and free nations have launched against it. Those of your fellow-citizens who, misled, have allowed themselves to be dragged by party passions or by interests of caste into a fratricidal war, may read to-day, in the ashes of their cities, how powerless and direful, and, in the death of Mr. Lincoln, how sterile and perverse, were the designs and instruments which have served the most odious of causes; and may God grant that, horrified by results so lamentable, they may turn to the aggrandizement of the country all the means and all the abilities employed during four years to destroy it. The blood of the President martyr thus counsels them, and thus also the hand of the assassin, from an ignominious solidarity with whom they ought to justify themselves, protesting by deeds, not of a blind party, but such as are worthy a great and enlightened people. Amid the painful emotions excited by this atrocious deed, it is at the same time a consolation and a lesson to perceive that the victim and the slayer were each faithful to the principles and the flag which each defended-in the name of which one dies, noble and magnanimous, as he had lived, serving his country and humanity; and the other, a brutal assassin, strikes, serving the monstrous requirements of an oligarchy or the instigatious of a shameful speculation. The death of the honored and patriotic President is, for your country, and even for the entire world, a just cause for immense grief; but it is not and cannot be a motive for doubting the triumph and final consolidation of the work begun a hundred years ago by Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, converting three millions of weak colonists into as many proud citizens, and which, to-day, is crowned by Lincoln, Grant, and Seward, converting four millions of poor slaves into as many free men, who will consolidate with their efforts the most just and prolific of governments. Amid the bitter grief which the death of Mr. Lincoln has caused us, and which has crowned with the aureola of martyrdom the defender of the Union, and has placed the stigma of infamy upon the brow of the dying rebellion, we do not cease to feel the most abiding confidence that the situation of your country must continue developing itself in the most prosperous and secure manner; that the bloody hand of an assassin will not be permitted to retard the chariot of civilization, nor to impede the triumphantly progressive march of democracy. The atrocious deed of the parricide Booth has proven that the cause of law, of Union, and of true republican government is not bound to the inspiration and energy of a single individual, even though that individual be great of soul as Lincoln, but to the decision, the prudence, the self-denial of a nation, which, after teaching to the world that the practice of liberty is the most fruitful condition of prosperity, has taught it that iù that practice are to be found the elements of war and victory, and will yet teach it that therein alone are rooted and flourishing the germs of concord and true fraternity. And thus will be belied one by one the doleful auguries which badly informed or evil-intentioned statesmen have not ceased to utter, ever since the shadows of civil war came to eclipse the splendor of the stars of your country, which by its course, in defeat and victory, in peace or war, has once again proved that the only and indispensable conditions for the stability of a government are liberty in all its forms, and justice in all its applications. In expressing to you, sir, our grief for the death of President Lincoln, and also our confidence in the proximate and lasting re-establishment of the Union, we believe ourselves to be not only the organ of our society, but that of our entire country, which has always found in the events, of your prosperity motives for cordial rejoicing, and in those of your adversity even more powerful ones to sympathize, as to-day, in a grief the most profound and just. Be pleased, sir, to receive the considerations of high esteem with which we have the honor to subscribe ourselves your obedient servants. MANUEL BLANCO ENCALADA. PEDRO MONCAYO. JUAN AUGUSTIN PALAZUELOS. Hon. THOS. H. NELSON, &c., &c., &c. Letter from the Anglo-Saxon workingmen's association of Valparaiso. VALPARAISO, June 5, 1865. SIR: The Anglo-Saxon Workingmen's Mutual Benefit Association of Valparaiso, being animated by the same deep sense of grief which has been felt by all classes of society at the untimely and violent death of the illustrious personage who filled the high and important position of President of the United States, beg you to accept the expression of their sincere regret at the manner in which his valuable life and services have been brought to an end. The body which we represent, and the class of society to which we belong, will be an excuse for the want of proper language or flowing rhetoric in which some addresses may have been sent to you; but at the same time, dear sir, we can assure you that what is wanting in language to express our sentiments will be found deeply engraved in the hearts of those whose feelings and sense of right would by none be more highly appreciated than by him whose lamented death has called forth our just and truest sympathies. Having, as is well known, risen to eminence from the humblest walks of life, his example gives an impulse, especially to men in our station, teaching us that through uprightness, perseverance, and a strict adherence to the principles of society, there is no limit to the degrees of excellence and dignity which may be attained by him who, like Abraham Lincoln, proves himself throughout life an honest and hard-working man. We remain, sir, most respectfully and truly yours, GEORGE LEBERT, Committee. RICHARD GROVES, Jr., Secretary. Hon. THOMAS H. NELSON, United States Minister, Santiago de Chili. Resolutions adopted at a meeting of American residents at Valparaiso, May 29, 1865. Deeply impressed and appalled by the intelligence this day received, that Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States of America, has been assassinated in a manner unsurpassed for treachery and cowardice, we adopt the following resolutions: Resolved, That our beloved country has in this event suffered the loss of one of her purest and noblest sons, one of her best and most self-sacrificing citizens, one of her most upright and sagacious statesmen. Resolved, That we blend our syınpathies with those of our fellow-citizens at home and abroad in the sorrow irrepressibly awakened by this occurrence, the atrocity of which, in the view of all honorable men, can be measured only by the distress it produces in the bosoms of patriots. |