The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-12 00:00:00

ici.

The Assassination of President Lincoln.
Confederate Gen. E. G. Lee has addressed the
following letter to the Montreal Gazette, denying the
assertion of Mr. Stanton that the assassination of
Mr. Lincoln was approved in Richmond :
TO THE EDITOR OF TUE MONTREAL. GAZETTE.
Su,-Although it is beneath the dignity of a Govern-
ment, or the humblest servant of a Government, to notice
any charge made against it which is preposterous for its
littleness and meanness, yet, as I know of no one now out-
side of Confederate and Federal lines who can better speak
Upon the subject which prompts this note, I beg leave to
address the public through your columns.
_ln a despatch addressed to Major-General Dix, dated
Washington, April 24, 2 p.m., and marked official (in which
Mr. Secretary Stanton announces the capture of Macon,
Georgia, in violation of an acknowledged armistice, and
states
his Permission for the Federal commander to rectify,
his dishonourable act), the following language occurs
This Department has information that the President's
murder was organised in Canada and approved at Rich-
-4_rn°l24l. One of the assassins now in prison, who attempted
hill Mr. Seward, is believed to be one of the St. Albans
raiders.
"E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War."
(The italics are mine.)
My object in writing this is to say that I, as an officer of
the service of the Confederate States of America, in their
behalf, deny everything which Mr. Stanton means by the
assertion that the " President's murder" was "approved at
Itisiunond." I assert that no official of the Confederate
States authorised, or was cognisant, of that assassination ;
and I make this assertion because I have heard both the
r•
resident and Secretary of State express views concerning
the policy of the Confederate States in conducting this war
se utterly at variance with the unmanly charge of the Fede-
ral Secretary that I know they neither prompted nor sanc-
tioned the deed. It is my high privilege to know most of
the members of the Confederate States' Government, and to
lave had frequent official intercourse with them. And for
them (as their own self-respect will not permit them to no-
dee it) I aver, upon the faith of a Christian and the honout
of a gentleman, my belief that they were as little the pro-
moters of the murder as Secretary Stanton or Vice-Presi-
dent Johnson.
A few days before I left Wilmington (a broken invalid) I
had the honour of conversing with the President and Mr.
i3eniam. and the remembrance of the high, noble senti-
ments expressed by both increases the wonder how Mr.
Confederate
who knows them, and the other members of the
vonfederate States' Government personally so well, could
lend himself to this low slander, when he must have known
it to be such. In denying it indignantly, contemptuously,
Ilear that I am even in my own humble person conde-
scending too far ; but I think this despatch should not go
UUcontradicted to the world, although, perhaps, our past re-
cord would have been it best rebuke. Whether, President
Lincoln's murder was " organised" in Canada or not is a
Matter of which lam equally ignorant and careless. I bell
Love this statement to be false—l know it to be so, so far
as it involves any imputation of instigation, complicity, or
remotest connection ou the part of myself or of any other
Confederates, so far as my knowledge extends. As the
act of an individual whose motives are, as yet, undeclared
and unknown, it was a daring one, concerning the perpe-
trator more than any one else, and each one may criticise
it as his feelings dictate. But as the act of a Government
Would be a cowardice which I would scarcely have be-
lieved that even Mr. Stanton could have charged upon the
Confederate authorities. If he have any proofs let the
World have them,, and judge between the two Govern-
raents.--3I am, respectfully, &c.,

EDWIN G. LEE, '
Brigadier-General, Confederate States' Army,
Bt. Lawrence-hall, Montreal, April 25.