If it was not reserved for him to create a nation, he was called most conspicuously to aid in preserving one against the most formidable armed conspiracy ever aimed at the life of a state

If, in the completeness of our institutions, it was not his office to add to the safeguards of liberty for his own race, it will be his undying glory to have lifted four millions of a feeble and long unbefriended people from bondage to the dignity of personal freedom.

The rights of humanity at last are vindicated, and our country is relieved of its great reproach.

Already the world is claiming for itself this last martyr to the cause of freedom, and ABRAHAM LINCOLN has taken his place among the moral constellations which shall impart light and life to all coming generations.

We would here gratefully remember the words of sympathy for our country, and of respect for the fallen, uttered with united voice by the rulers and people of Europe. We believe this event, which all humanity mourns, will strengthen the tie of friendship which should ever unite the brotherhood of

states.

We would not in this address say more of the assassin than express our . abhorrence of his dreadful crime, but we lovingly remember that the last utterances of him we mourn were words of clemency toward the defeated enemies of his country: "With charity to all, and malice for none," he was superior to revenge. "Peace and union!" These secured, there was little place in his heart for the severities of justice.

It was this gentleness, united to an integrity and unselfishness of character never surpassed, that won the hearts of his countrymen. We mourn not only the magistrate we revered, but the friend we loved.

It is not for us to scrutinize the dealings of a just God; we bow before his dispensations when least intelligible to human wisdom. But in sealing with his blood the work to which he was called, Mr. LINCOLN has, we believe, been the means of placing upon more imperishable foundations the unity, the glory, and the beneficent power of our beloved country. And if there be inspiration in high example, we know that his wise and upright policy in all our domestic and foreign relations will be an additional guarantee for peace, charity, and justice throughout the civilized world.

We beg to assure you, and through you Mrs. Lincoln and her family, of our deep sympathy in this their hour of affliction. We know how inadequate is all human consolation, but it is grateful to us to assure the bereaved that we mourn with them their irreparable loss.

To the honored Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, whose death was also purposed, and the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Frederick W. Seward, and their families, we wish also to express our sympathies, in view of their great perils and sufferings.

We deem it fitting to express to our distinguished fellow-citizen who succeeds to the chief magistracy our sense of the trying circumstances under which he is called to his new trust. We find in the record of his long and useful public career the basis of the most perfect confidence in his ability, hist justice, and his patriotism.

We beg you, sir, to assure our fellow-countrymen, and the more immediate sufferers by the terrible tragedy, and the President, of these our most heartfelt sentiments.

We have the honor, sir, to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants,

N. M. BECKWITH,

JAMES O. PUTNAM,

JAMES PHALEN,

WILLIAM C. EMMET,

THOMAS W. EVANS, M. D..
ROBERT M. MASON,

RICHARD M. HOE,

JOHNSTON LIVINGSTONE,

Committee.

PARIS, May 4, 1865.

AND SOME TWO HUNDRED OTHERS.

Reply of Mr. Bigelow.

GENTLEMEN I respect and share the emotions which have inspired this address. I shall have a melancholy satisfaction in communicating it to those whose stricken hearts have the first claim to its consolations.

The crime which has provoked this impressive demonstration from the loyal Americans in Paris is one which unites all the elements of human depravity in their largest proportions. Its victims are among those whose loss at the present moment the whole civilized world would most unanimously deplore. Upon us, his compatriots, who knew best what a rare collection of public and private virtues went down into the grave with ABRAHAM LINCOLN, this blow has fallen with peculiar severity, and I thank you for the faithful eloquence with which you have interpreted our common sorrow.

But no crime was ever committed that was not an involuntary homage to virtue. The war between the principles of good and evil is always waging; and if the Lamb that took away the sins of the world had to bear his testimony upon the cross, why should he who proclaimed deliverance to a race of bondmen be safe from the treacherous hand of the assassin? How more appropriately could our great national reproach ultimate itself? Was it more than historic justice to mark the grave of chattel slavery in the United States by a

crime that was never perpetrated, whatever the pretence, except in the interests of slavery?

Those who, like myself, are accustomed to search for the hand of God in the phenomena of human life, cannot but feel, as, after much reflection, I am led to feel, that our people were never nearer to Him than at the dreadful moment when we seemed, humanly speaking, most deserted. What revelations that crime has made; what lessons it has taught, and will teach; what prejudices it has corrected; what hostilities it has suspended; what sympathies it has awakened! They are in every one's mind; they are on every one's tongue. Even here in a foreign land, and where what we most cherish in our political institutions may be supposed to be but imperfectly comprehended, what American has not been surprised and comforted by the spontaneous and universal demonstrations of sympathy which our national bereavement has elicited from all parties, and from every class, from the humblest and from the most exalted? Such a tribute was never paid to our country before; such homage was never paid to any other American. other American. And why to Mr. LINCOLN? Because his death, and the time and manner of it, seem to have rendered his whole public career luminous, and to make it clear to the most distant observers that our late President, inspired by a love which made all men his brothers, had been building wiser than they knew; that he had been fighting the fight of humanity, of justice, and of civilization; and, finally, that he had been summoned hence to receive a crown of triumph more enduring than that which was preparing for

him here.

It is not too much to say that during the long four years of our bloody struggle with this rebellion the world made less progress in comprehending its baleful origin and purposes, and the common interest of humanity in resisting it, than has been made during the brief interval which has elapsed since this dreadful tragedy. By the hand of an assassin that simple-hearted and singleminded patriot has been transfigured, and has taken his place in history as the impersonation of a cause which henceforth it will be blasphemy to assail.

I was never so proud of being an American as when I learned with what comparative unanimity my countrymen put the seal of their approbation upon all the sacrifices he had invited them to make by re-electing him to the presidency. Nor was I ever more proud of being a man than since I have learned by his death how, during all his troubled administration, his public and private virtues have been secretly but steadily graving themselves upon the hearts of mankind My heart goes out more than ever to our brothers in foreign lands who have shown such readiness to lessen the burden of our great affliction by sharing it with us.

I desire to join with all my heart in your expression of sympathy for those whose grief is yet too poignant to be assuaged by such considerations as these. May God sustain them, and in His own good time reveal to them the silver lining which always lies concealed in the folds of the darkest clouds.

.

And, while weeping with those that weep, you do well to rejoice with those who rejoice that God in his mercy shortened the arm that was lifted against our venerable and illustrious Secretary of State and his noble sons. Had they, too, been swept into a martyr's grave, then, indeed, had assassination triumphed. But thanks be to God, they still live, and in them lives on our lamented President. In their trials, in their disappointments, in their plans, in their hopes, in their triumphs, the late President and Mr. Seward were one. In Mr. Seward's escape the murderer of the President is deprived of every advantage that could possibly have tempered the remorse by which, for the remaining hours of his wretched life, he must have been tormented. Swift justice has already overtaken him, and he is now where we have no occasion to follow him, either with our wrath or with our commiseration.

I had occasion, some three years ago, to warn Mr. Seward of plots maturing then against the lives of leading loyal statesmen in different cities of our republic, intelligence of which had reached me here. His reply has acquired, from recent events, such a painful interest that I feel justified by the present occasion in reading it to you:

"There is no doubt that from a period anterior to the breaking out of the insurrection, plots and conspiracies for purposes of assassination have been frequently formed and organized. And it is not unlikely that such an one as has been reported to you is now in agitation among the insurgents. If it be so. it need furnish no ground for anxiety. Assassination is not an American practice or habit, and one so vicious and so desperate cannot be engrafted into our political system.

"This conviction of mine has steadily gained strength since the civil war began. Every day's experience confirms it. The President, during the heated season, occupies a country house near the Soldiers' Home, two or three miles from the city. He goes to and from that place on horseback, night and morning, unguarded. I go there, unattended, at all hours, by daylight and moonlight, by starlight and without any light."

You will remark in these lines that same hopeful, confiding nature that thinketh no evil; that inextinguishable reliance on the good sense and manly instincts of his country-people, which has sustained him, and through him, in a great degree, the nation, during four long years of trial which required, if any ever did, statesmen that walked by faith and not by sight.

Among the many marvellous results of this great tragedy there is still one to which, I am sure, you will pardon an allusion.

The fatal ball that raised ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the glory of a martyr, discharged a debt of gratitude to Andrew Johnson, for which nothing short of the highest national honors would suffice. Among the statesmen now living it would be difficult to name one who, according to his opportunity, has placed his country under greater obligations than the constitutional successor of President LINCOLN. With some experience of almost every condition of social life, he has passed through every grade of public distinction in the United States, from the lowest to the very highest, and he never quitted any public trust except for one of greater honor and responsibility. That could never be said of an ordinary Mr. Johnson has now entered upon new and unprecedented trials. I share fully your confidence in his ability to meet them all. It should be a matter of congratulation with us, in this hour of national affliction, that the mantle of our lamented President should have fallen upon the ample shoulders of a statesman so experienced, so upright, and so meritorious as Andrew Johnson.

man.

A.... L.. G:. D.. G.... A.... D:. L.. U::.

[Translation.]

ORDER OF PAU, May 18, 1865.

To His Excellency, Ambassador of the United States:

The regrets of the whole world accompanied ABRAHAM LINCOLN when he fell, triumphant, from the murderer's bullet. His admirable good sense, his inviolable respect for the laws, his regard for the liberty and dignity of the people who had trusted their destiny to him, his unwavering faith in justice and truth, have made him one of the most noble characters of modern times. In the first rank of great men, history will point him out as one of those rare modern examples of true patriotism, placing its strength in the practice of civil virtues. By this murder the assassin has not gained his end. He has taken a precious life, but he has not destroyed the existence of the American people; they, by their institutions and the practice of liberty, are beyond the reach of such human events.

This lodge, the cradle of Henry the Fourth, at Pau, under the sad circumstances, regrets the great citizen, and has the greatest confidence in the great republic of the United States.

A. LACOSTE.
FELIX ARRIA.

A. BIVOT.

A. DUMOULON.

A. VERRIN.

E. GENERSE.

P. ETCHEBARTER.