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The address of the inhabitants of Merthyr Tydfil, in the county of Glamorgan, in public meeting assembled.
To the President and Congress of the United States of America:
In desiring to convey to you our expression of painful sympathy in the heavy loss which the government and people of the United States have suffered by the death of President Lincoln, we express our unqualified detestation and execration of so hideous a crime.
We are the more deeply shocked that the event has occurred at a moment when the triumph of the United States seemed on the point of completion; and as the murderous and simultaneous attack upon Mr. Seward, the faithful minister of President Lincoln, who so well supported him through the whole of this eventful crisis, betrays the object of the crime, we are constrained to believe that their death was intended to rob the people of the United States of their devotion to right and law, and to postpone the time when the long-desired peace would be obtained.
But we sincerely hope that the great work of the restoration of the Union will not, by this deplorable event, suffer, or cause it to be long delayed. The death of him who so wisely and efficiently worked for that great end will, we confidently trust, have only the more striking effect of strengthening the Union for which he died.
In the invincible respect which the people of the United States have manifested for law and freedom, during the terrible struggle of this war, we recognize the best guarantee of a future obedience to the authority of the government, and of submission to the will of the people, as expressed by popular representation.
We confidently anticipate they will express most unmistakeably that the policy of which their late President was the embodiment is to be carried out in all its extent, and that institutions in which perfect freedom for life, for speech, and for property, will be extended over the whole of the United States, so that ntegrity and worth, not color and class, shall henceforward be recognized as the proper qualifications of those who govern.
We consider that the long services of Andrew Johnson are sufficient guarantees that, in succeeding the late President, the people of America will find a man eminently qualified to carry to a successful issue the policy inaugurated by his predecessor, and we fervently hope that, in the hands of divine Providence, he will prove to be the humble instrument of bringing peace and tranquility to a land torn by warfare and bloodshed, and that in the future relation of America with foreign nations, truthfulness, honesty, and forbearance will be its foremost consideration.
Finally we pray that the ruthless passions which have been engendered may totally cease, and that under an united people the remembrance of the fearful struggles of civil warfare will forever be buried in oblivion.
JOHN JONES,
High Constable, Chairman.