The New York Times/1865/4/15/The Common Council
THE COMMON COUNCIL.
Message from Mayor Gunther.
Mayor's Office, New-York, April 15, 1865.
To the Honorable the Common Council:
Gentlemen: Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, is dead. With inexpressible horror I announce to you this event, coupled as it was with violence. Just at the moment when peace began to dawn over an afflicted land, the dreadful blow fell on him, on whom its destinies seemed to depend.
Your Honorable Body, I am sure, will take appropriate action in view of this awful dispensation, to signify those sentiments of public respect and grief, due alike to the exalted station and fearful death of the Chief Magistrate of the United States, which now pervade our whole people, and have plunged them in universal distress and misery.
C. GODFREY GUNTHER, Mayor.