of the French people for the American people, and to add our felicitations to your President Johnson upon the re-establishment of the Union in a manner at once so conciliating and so energetic, so firm and so lawful.

Thus America gives to the Old World a grand and noble lesson. Among us, a powerful general, commanding nearly a million soldiers, would have profited by that crime to proclaim that it was necessary to save the republic by a dictatorship, and he would at last have destroyed it for the profit of personal ambition.

With you the Constitution has been respected with a sublime simplicity. Grant, Sherman, and all your generals remain simple citizens, but great citizens.

We thank them, we thank your President and your noble American people, for giving to us at this day the spectacle of the manly virtues of the bright days of the Roman republic-to us people of the Latin race, who have now before our eyes only Octaviuses, without vigor, tottering in their buskins while trying to play the part of worn-out Cæsars, amid the suppressed jeers of Europe.

Hail, then, to Johnson, to Grant, to Sherman! Hail to all your citizens, and Heaven grant that they may send back to France with the winds of the ocean-with its tempests if need be-those powerful blasts of liberty which it sent to them a century ago, at its first awaking.

We salute you fraternally.

EDWARD TALBOT, Proprietor.
SETE, Retired Merchant.

Mr. BIGELOW, Minister Plenipotentiary

of the Republic of the United States, at Paris.

The inhabitants of the city of Caen to the honorable Mr. Johnson, President of the United States.

[Translation.]

SIR: There are crimes which shock and distress not one nation only, but the conscience of mankind. At the first rumors of the assassination of Mr. LINCOLN all Europe shudders with indignation and grief. Impelled by this emotion, spontaneous, universal, irresistible, the public authorities themselves bow with respect before that new-made grave.

Why these unanimous regrets? It was not only because, springing from the ranks of the people, Mr. LINCOLN, by force of will, of toil, of energy, had reached the highest dignity of his land; it was not only because, in the face of immense difficulties, he had arranged all, smoothed all, surmounted all; but it was, above all, because he had accomplished that enormous task without veiling the statue of liberty; it was because he had become a great man by respecting the laws, and remaining an honest man.

This is why your sorrow is the sorrow of all good men.

But at the same time they have confidence in your institutions, and they know that the crime which has been committed will but confirm anew their

vitality and power.

They intended to slay the future of a people; they have only smitten slavery. A great man is dead; a great people remains.

It is to them that we send across the ocean our deep regrets, our fraternal sympathies. Say to them that we love them; tell them that we have suffered with their sufferings; that we have followed with anguish the changing aspects of their implacable strife, and applauded their victory with the enthusiasm of hope, and ask them also to love us, and to love our France.

Tell them to weep for their great citizen departed, but not to pity him. LINCOLN had prevented the dismemberment of his country; he had abolished slavery; he had lived enough; he could die. Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori. Tell them, in fine, that humanity has never given birth but in sorrow; that to just and holy causes there is need of noble martyrs, and that for the ages the only true crowns are the crowns of thorns, shining over Calvaries. CAEN, CALVADOS, May 10, 1865.

An address sent to Mr. Bigelow by M. Ed. Laboulaye, on the part of the inhabitants of the town of Guingamp.

[Translation.]

MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE: ABRAHAM LINCOLN has just fallen a martyr to liberty. He dies in the full blaze of triumph, struck down by an assassin at the moment when the great republic of the United States had passed through the most grievous trials, thanks to the civic virtues and the energy of their illustrious President. The undersigned, citizens resident at Guingamp, hasten, sir, to testify to you the feeling of affliction and indignation in which this cruel event has plunged them. They are not uneasy about the future of your great nation, because they know that with a free people the fate of their institutions does not depend upon the life of one man, however illustrious he may be, but they do not the less consider it a duty to deplore with you the death of the excellent man whose name will be inscribed in history by the side of that of Washington.

H. LEMASSON,

P. LEMASSON, FILS.

ED. GUYOMARD

J. M. THOMAS

G. LECORNEE.

LE GUOYOT.

A. BERNARD

LEMASSON, PERE.

S. JERET.

G. ARGUINT.

HILARY.

O. DONIELL.

P. LE COY.

H. LEBENAFF.

AND OTHERS,

1

[Translation.]

SIR: At the terrible news now resounding throughout the whole world, the hearts of all French Masons are filled with sorrow. They have shed tears of sympathy for the glorious death of one who, after having used the hammer, square, and compass, those living implements of our immortal society, raised himself by his genius, his virtues, and spotless life to be the great chief of the American people.

The most holy causes, by a necessary consecration, have always had their martyrs; and ABRAHAM LINCOLN will be reckoned as one of them, the noblest victim of duty.

The New Friendship Lodge of Grasse lends its voice to the echo of universal regret of French Freemasonry.

It does not forget that if all men are brothers, France and America are still closer united by this sublime bond, and trusts that a supreme consolation will reach the soul of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

No! the grand villain's crime cannot destroy the great work of the immortal citizen. A final peace and the abolition of slavery are the just fruits of his glorious conduct, and these rewards of his martyrdom will show the world what the devotion of a noble heart can do against the prejudices of ignorance.

Receive, sir, the assurance of our most respectful consideration. [Signed by all the officers of the lodge; names cannot be deciphered.] A similar letter is addressed by this lodge to the Grand Lodge of New York, and a sealed letter to Mrs. Lincoln.

To all the Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of New York, by their brothers the United Benefactors of Gentilly.

more.

[Translation.]

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS BROTHERS: The holy cause of liberty has one martyr The secular work of emancipation of the human race began the day when tyranny took the place of fraternity between the strong and the weak; was continued in the Parthenon and on Calvary; then by reform and revolution has finally gained a new victory in the United States, where again the blood of the just has been shed. It is one of the laws of human development that no change can be effected in the social or political order without terrible convulsions, and at the sacrifice of the most precious lives. A victim of his devotion to the eternal principles of justice and truth, the very illustrious brother, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, has given his life for the love of his country and his fellowcreatures, thus setting the most noble example a masonic brother can give to his brethren-transiit benefaciendo!

The horrid crime that felled him in the hour of victory has carried pain and consternation into every heart. Let us mourn! Freemasonry has suffered an irreparable loss. Let us mourn! For persecuted virtue only triumphs after long and frightful struggles, and after most cruel sacrifices.

But let us hope that the blood of ABRAHAM LINCOLN has not been shed in vain. The redeemer of the black race will hereafter be numbered among the benefactors of the human race.

Brothers, you will complete the work of the great and generous citizen, whose name will shine in history by the side of that of Washington; the founder and restorer of the American Union will go down to posterity together Courage, brothers, courage! Slavery of the body is conquered; but slavery of the soul, the worst kind of servitude, yet remains. Let us face it boldly; we in the old continent, you in the new. Let us struggle to destroy the ignorance and prejudices that yet enslave the human mind.

Our zeal in effecting the complete emancipation of the human race is the greatest and most worthy homage we can render to the memory of the eminent man whose premature and tragic end is now deplored by all Freemasonry.

Brethren of the Grand Lodge of New York, receive the sincere expression of our ardent sympathy. Let our hearts form a chain of union. Fraternity knows no distance; let us stretch our hands across the Atlantic. Our thought is in you, as yours is in us.

Your devoted brothers of the United Benefactors,

Honorary Venerable, LECAILLIER.

Venerable, CAMPAGNE.

First W., DEGONY, Orator.

Second W., V. FREQUDRE, Simors.
Secretary, E. PERRECHAY.

Almoner, BOURNIR.

Treasurer, GUENDIN.

AND MANY OTHERS.

[Translation.]

The abominable crime of Wilkes Booth has thrown into your hands all the duties and all the powers of the great republic of the United States.

The Freemasons who assemble at the Orient of Gaillac (Tarn) in the Lodge of St. John, under the distinctive title of Orion, wish to express to you their sentiments of admiration, gratitude, and regret for LINCOLN, and their profound sympathy for the government of which you are the head.

The blood of your martyred magistrate becomes a fecundating dew to give to liberty a new baptism throughout the entire universe.

+

Sound democracy laments LINCOLN in blessing his memory. God has received him into glory, and his wisdom inspires you. We, the members of this lodge, salute you in the name of the true children of light.

Mr. ANDREW JOHNSON,

GARY.

P. NIGAL.
DEMURE.

CASSAGNES.

PANTHE.

President of the United States of America.

AND MANY OTHERS.

[Translation.]

To the senators and representatives of the American Congress:

GENTLEMEN: We, creoles of Guadeloupe, of African descent, wish to express the profound sorrow we feel at the loss your great republic has suffered in the person of its illustrious President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

This event, which has shocked the civilized world and all the true friends of the northern cause-the cause of the freedom of an oppressed race-cannot find us indifferent. Therefore we hasten to lay before you the solemn testimony of our sincere grief and cordial sympathy on this occasion of the ever to be regretted loss of the eminent statesman to whom you had intrusted the destinies of the Union, and to take part in the mourning of the land of Washington and Jefferson, those glorious heroes whose virtue will ever be the eulogy of posterity for one who will henceforward be placed by their side in the history of humanity, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Accept, gentlemen, with our regrets, the wishes we express for the prosperity of the American republic, and for the triumph of the great princi

ples of liberty and equality.