cating to you the resolutions of this community, we have the honor to express to you our own especial sorrow at this bereavement, and to subscribe ourselves with every consideration, your most obedient servants, RAFAEL VALDEZ. EMILIO G. BEECHE. CARLOS GONSALEZ UGALDE. MANUEL CONCHA, R. EMILIO ESCOBAR. PEDRO L. GALLO. JAVIER VERGARA. JOSE R. ROJAS, 2D. JOSÉ RAMON CORBALAN. RAMON FRITIS. J. EDWARDS. THOMAS H. NELSON, Esq., Minister of the United States. No. 196.] Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I know not in what terms to give utterance to the feelings of grief and dismay which overpowered me upon learning of the brutal assassination of our great and good President, and of the dastardly attempt upon your own life. It is still difficult for me to realize that crimes so awful have been committed. The effect upon the residents of Santiago and Valparaiso was sad beyond description. Strong men wandered about the streets weeping like children, and foreigners, unable even to speak our language, manifested a grief almost as deep as our own. Being temporarily in Valparaiso I invited our countrymen to meet me at the American consulate at four o'clock upon the 29th ultimo, (the steamer having arrived that morning,) to take such action as might be proper in the premises. At that hour, the rooms, the hall, the staircase, and even the street fronting the building were crowded, and upon my addressing the assemblage, the exhibition of profound grief was such as I have never seen equalled. Several overcome by their emotion, sat down upon the very ground and wept; and men whose stoicism had never been affected gave violent course to their grief. Prayer having been offered by the Reverend Dr. Trumbull, a series of appropriate resolutions were proposed and adopted. * * * * Upon the same day the intendente called upon me and stated that he had been instructed by the President to tender his earnest sympathy in this awful calamity, and to inquire in what way the government of Chili could most acceptably manifest how sincerely it mourned with the people and government of the United States. Thanking him cordially for the kind attention, I informed him that, while I should be deeply grateful for every mark of respect shown to the memory of the late President, it was not for me to indicate the form of such demonstration. Instructions were then issued that the American and Chilian flags should be drooped at half-mast from all the native vessels in the harbor, during eight days; and as I left for Santiago on the following day, minute guns were being fired from the sloop-of war Esmeralda. The flags upon the public buildings, those of the foreign consuls, and of many private residences were also hoisted at halfmast. Similar evidences of sympathy were also shown by the government and diplomatic corps in Santiago; and I have been informed that the government proposes, as a further tribute of respect, to order a parade of all the military organizations in Santiago, to file past the legation with arms reversed and flags shrouded in mourning. I have also received letters of condolence from the secretary of foreign relations; from the Spanish minister; the Society of Primary Instruction; the Workingmen's Union, and others, to all of which I have endeavored to reply appropriately. All the members of the diplomatic corps have called to express their sympathy, as well as a large number of citizens and strangers. The President in his message, delivered this afternoon, alluded feelingly to the great loss sustained by the United States, and congress, in an informal meeting held prior to the delivery of the message, ordered the flag of the capital to be placed at half-mast. Mournful and depressing as is this sad bereavement, it behooves us not to forget, in our sorrow, that the Divine Ruler has preserved to us a life whose importance at this crisis of our country's regeneration cannot be too highly estimated. Permit me, therefore, to offer you my most earnest and sincere congratulations upon your own almost miraculous escape from the hands of the assassin, and to express the hope that you may be spared for many years to receive the grateful thanks of the country for which you have so nobly labored, and to which your very life came so near being made a sacrifice. The steadfast and self-denying devotion manifested throughout the whole of our great struggle with treason by the eminent patriot who has succeeded to the presidency, gives cheering assurance to the hearts of our countrymen that the great purpose of Mr. Lincoln will be ably, firmly, and conscientiously carried out. * * * * * I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, * THOMAS H. NELSON. Secretary of State. No. 197.] Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward. [Extract.] LEGATION OF the United STATES, SIR: At one o'clock to-day the congress of Chili was convened for the purpose of opening its regular sessions, and to listen to the annual message of the President. Upon my entering the senate chamber, where both houses were assembled, manifestations of enthusiasm were made, while the members rose to their feet and remained standing until I had taken my seat. The message was read by his excellency in person. Alluding to the United States, he said: "In the relations of cordial friendship which we cultivate with the United States of America, it has been impossible for us to view without lively and sincere satisfaction the intelligence which insures the complete re-establishment of peace. "The happy termination of the sanguinary struggle which has afflicted them will permit them to return again to the prolific labors of arts and manufactures, cleansed from a social plague which Chili banished from the earliest days of her 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." I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS H. NELSON. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. No. 201.] Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward. 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 street 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 alemada 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 II. 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 II. 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 the expression of its grief. 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. 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 infamous. From 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. JOSÉ 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 |