Municipality of Messina to Frederick W. Behn

Municipality of Messina to Frederick W. Behn

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Presidents--Assassination

Condolence notes

Municipal government

Municipality of Messina

Record Group 59: General Records of the Department of State, 1763-2002, Entry 177: Foreign Messages on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, 1865, National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

1865-06-21

pdf

eng

RG59E177-413

38.1833, 15.5667

Messina, Sicily

Italy

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Late President of the United States of America, and the Attempted Assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866), 451-52.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Late President of the United States of America, and the Attempted Assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1867), 592.

[Translation.]

An address of condolence, dated the 21st of June, 1865, from the municipality of Messina to the consul of the United States of America.

To honor the name of a great citizen, one of the most liberal among nations, and to transmit his name to posterity, the municipal council voted in their sitting, the 13th of May last, and decided on giving the name of Abraham Lincoln to one of the principal streets which is shortly to be opened in the new quarter of Terranova in this city.

This is an attestation of affection to the United States of America, to honor the memory of their indefatigable President, who fell a victim to treachery, but surrounded by the light of a sublime idea, “the freedom of slaves.” It is, finally, an homage to the great principles of liberty, without which whatever may be the civil event is false and illusory.

Be pleased, worthy sir, to accept, and have accepted by his excellency President Johnson, who now represents the government of the United States, this testimony of grief and sympathy which the people of Messina tribute to the great American nation.

The Mayor, President,
G. CHANCIAFARA.

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