MR. SLIDELL AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 553, 21 August 1865, Page 5

MR. SLIDELL AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

The Rev. Mr. Archer Gurney having invited Mr. Slide 1 to be present at a solemn service in Paris in memory r 'f Mr. Lincoln, at which Southerners and Northerners were alike to attend, the fo lowing reply was sent to the invitation : —" Paris, April 28.—My d-ar Sir, —No one coul 1 have heard with greater horror and regret than I tho intelligence of the atrocious crimes perpetrated at Washington. No one could repudiate with st rner indignation the idea that the assassins had received prompting or encouragement from friends of tho Confederate cause. Perhaps no two prominent per-ons of the Federal Government Could have been selected who excited in'a less degree feelings of personal hostility and vindictiveness than President Lincolu and his f-ecretary of State lam much o! liged to you for inviting me and my family to assist at the solemn service which you propose to hold to-morrow at your chapel, and could we be pr sent simply to manifest the feelings which I have briefly e*pressed, « e would not hesitate to kneel with you in prayer for the eouU of tho victims. But reflection will, I am sure, satisfy you that our presence on the melancholy occasion would be subject to various and not unnatural misconstructions, received on the part of some as a hypocritical display of a recret we did not fe-1; by others, as a virtual acknowledgment of the injustice of the catiße in the defence of which so many nob e maityrs have fallen, and as a tacitly implied acquiescence in the course of policy pursued by Mr. Lincoln since his accession to power on the 4th of March. IS6I. I will take plea-sure, in compliance with your request, to let any Confederate friends whom I may see to-day know of the intended ceremony.— Believe me, very sincerely, your friend and servant, John Slidell."