DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
_Washington, April 5, 1841_.

Sir: It is my great misfortune to be obliged to inform you of an event
not less afflicting to the people of the United States than distressing
to my own feelings and the feelings of all those connected with the
Government.

The President departed this life yesterday at thirty minutes before
1 o'clock in the morning.

You are respectfully invited to attend the funeral ceremonies, which
will take place on Wednesday next, and with the particular arrangements
for which you will be made acquainted in due time.

Not doubting your sympathy and condolence with the Government and people
of the country on this bereavement, I have the honor to be, sir, with
high consideration, your obedient servant,

DANL. WEBSTER.

ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE ARMY.

[From official records in the War Department.]

DEPARTMENT OF WAR,
_Washington April 5, 1841_.

It is with feelings of the deepest sorrow that the Secretary of War
announces to the Army the death of the President of the United States.
William Henry Harrison is no more. His long and faithful services in
many subordinate but important stations, his recent elevation to the
highest in honor and power, and the brief term allotted to him in the
enjoyment of it are circumstances of themselves which must awaken the
liveliest sympathy in every bosom. But these are personal
considerations; the dispensation is heaviest and most afflicting on
public grounds. This great calamity has befallen the country at a period
of general anxiety for its present, and some apprehension for its
future, condition--at a time when it is most desirable that all its high
offices should be filled and all its high trusts administered in
harmony, wisdom, and vigor. The generosity of character of the deceased,
the conspicuous honesty of his principles and purposes, together with
the skill and firmness with which he maintained them in all situations,
had won for him the affection and confidence of his countrymen; but at
the moment when by their voice he was raised to a station in the
discharge of the powers and duties of which the most beneficent results
might justly have been anticipated from his great experience, his sound
judgment, the high estimation in which he was held by the people, and
his unquestioned devotion to the Constitution and to the Union, it has
pleased an all-wise but mysterious Providence to remove him suddenly
from that and every other