[From Appendix to Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham
Lincoln.]
President Johnson, in his annual message to Congress at the commencement
of the session of 1865-66, thus announced the death of his predecessor:
To express gratitude to God in the name of the people for the
preservation of the United States is my first duty in addressing you.
Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act of
parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh. It finds
some solace in the consideration that he lived to enjoy the highest
proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief
Magistracy to which he had been elected; that he brought the civil war
substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of the
Union, and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his memory.
Hon. E.B. Washburne, of Illinois, immediately after the President's
message had been read in the House of Representatives, offered the
following joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted:
_Resolved_, That a committee of one member from each State represented
in this House be appointed on the part of this House, to join such
committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and
report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the
Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the
nation to the event of the decease of their late President, Abraham
Lincoln, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to
that melancholy event be referred to said committee.
On motion of Hon. Solomon Foot, the Senate unanimously concurred in the
passage of the resolution, and the following joint committee was
appointed, thirteen on the part of the Senate and one for every State
represented (twenty-four) on the part of the House of Representatives:
Senate: Hon. Solomon Foot, Vermont; Hon. Richard Yates, Illinois; Hon.
Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio; Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, Maine; Hon. Henry
Wilson, Massachusetts; Hon. James R. Doolittle, Wisconsin; Hon. James H.
Lane, Kansas; Hon. Ira Harris, New York; Hon. James W. Nesmith, Oregon;
Hon. Henry S. Lane, Indiana; Hon. Waitman T. Willey, West Virginia; Hon.
Charles R. Buckalew, Pennsylvania; Hon. John B. Henderson, Missouri.
House of Representatives: Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, Illinois; Hon. James
G. Blaine, Maine; Hon. James W. Patterson, New Hampshire; Hon. Justin S.
Morrill, Vermont; Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Massachusetts; Hon. Thomas A.
Jenckes, Rhode Island; Hon. Henry C. Deming, Connecticut; Hon. John A.
Griswold, New York; Hon. Edwin R.V. Wright, New Jersey; Hon. Thaddeus
Stevens, Pennsylvania; Hon. John A. Nicholson, Delaware; Hon. Francis
Thomas, Maryland; Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Ohio; Hon. George S. Shanklin,
Kentucky; Hon. Godlove S. Orth, Indiana; Hon. Joseph W. McClurg,
Missouri; Hon. Fernando C. Beaman, Michigan; Hon. John A. Kasson, Iowa;
Hon. Ithamar C. Sloan, Wisconsin; Hon. William Higby, California; Hon.
William Windom, Minnesota; Hon. J.H.D. Henderson, Oregon; Hon. Sidney
Clarke, Kansas; Hon. Kellian V. Whaley, West Virginia.
The joint committee, made the following report, which was concurred in
by both Houses _nem. con._:
Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of Abraham
Lincoln, late President of the United States, having occurred during the
recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief and
desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of the public
bereavement: Therefore,
_Be it resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring)_, That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the Hall
of the House of Representatives on Monday, the 12th day of February
next, that being his anniversary birthday, at the hour of 12 m., and
that, in the presence of the two Houses there assembled, an address upon
the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United
States, be pronounced by Hon. Edwin M. Stanton,[18] and that the
President of the Senate _pro tempore_ and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives be requested to invite the President of the United
States, the heads of the several Departments, the judges of the Supreme
Court, the representatives of the foreign governments near this
Government, and such officers of the Army and Navy as have received the
thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of Government to be
present on the occasion.
_And be it further resolved_, That the President of the United States be
requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Lincoln, and
to assure her of the profound sympathy of the two Houses of Congress for
her deep personal affliction and of their sincere condolence for the
late national bereavement.
[Footnote 18: Mr. Stanton having declined, Hon. George Bancroft, of New
York, in response to an invitation from the joint committee, consented
to deliver the address.]
[For proclamations of President Johnson recommending, in consequence
of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United
States, a day for special humiliation and prayer, see pp, 306-307, and
for Executive order in connection therewith see p. 339. For Executive
order closing the Executive Office and the Departments on the day of
the funeral of the late President, at Springfield, Ill., see p. 335.
For Executive order closing the public offices April 14, 1866, in
commemoration of the assassination of the late President, see p. 440.]