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[Translation.]
Mottoes on the Seal:
{Altius Tendimus.
Travail et Concorde.
Canadian Institute, found ed in 1844, incorporated in 1853.}
To His Excellency the Hon. Andrew Johnson, President of the United States:
May it please your Excellency: With profound sentiments of affliction and indignation, the Canadian Institute heard of the horrible murder that has spread consternation among the people of the United States, and of the execrable attempt of assassination upon the person of the honorable Secretary of State.
The premature and tragic death of the eminent man, so universally respected and admired, who was the political chief of the great nation that your excellency is now called upon to govern, is, in the opinion of the Canadian Institute, not only a terrible national calamity, but an event that brings sorrow and mourning upon all true friends of liberty and progress, and upon the enemies of slavery and tyranny throughout the world, and sincere grief to the believers in democratic institutions; who were proud to see one of the most upright and blameless men that ever governed a nation at the head of the freest people on the face of the earth.
The members of the Canadian Institute, in their humble sphere, admired Abraham Lincoln as much for his rare modesty and the self-denial of which he gave so many glorious examples, as they esteemed him for his elevated conception of political and private probity, which even his enemies could not refuse to acknowledge in him.
Slavery had already sacrificed enough victims; and it was truly lamentable that the great chief of the nation, who had destroyed the monster, should become its last and most illustrious martyr. It is, indeed, deplorable that this great and renowned patriot, the impersonation of national unity, of fidelity to the Constitution and devotion to duty, should be added to the hecatomb of sacrifices of defenders of the Constitution and the laws, caused by the accursed institution of slavery.
The Canadian Institute, watching with interest the various events in the social or political progress of a people towards civilization, ventures to express to your excellency the great pleasure it feels at the abolition of slavery in the glorious American republic. The consequence of this act will be the blotting out of the only stain upon democratic institutions, which have been so often corrupted, perverted, and turned from their true path by an accursed institution, which was an emphatic denial of all human rights, and a violation of every divine law; and the restoration of peace in the United States, a peace that must endure, since the sole cause of the terrible war that has desolated the great country has disappeared with slavery.
The Canadian Institute rejoices that your excellency escaped the assassin’s dagger, and expresses its most sincere wish for the success of your administration; it hopes you may overcome the existing obstacles in the way of a perfect peace and reunion, with the same success that attended your illustrious predecessor, and wishes you may fill the honorable and glorious position in the history of the United States which was promised by your memorable assurances of devotion to the integrity of your country, and to its glorious and admirable Constitution.
L. A. DESSAULES,
Clerk of the Crown,
GONZALVE DOUTRE, B. V. L.,
Committee.
J. J. DURAND,
President of the C. I.
LEO SASSRON,
Secretary Arc. C. I.
JOS. BOUCHARD,
Secretary Cor. C. I.
Montreal, April 22, 1865.