Lincoln, Abraham:

$50,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO SECRETARY OF WAR EDWIN STANTON, ASKING STANTON TO FULFILL THE REQUEST OF LINCOLN'S ILLINOIS POLITICAL COLLEAGUE, MARTIN P. SWEET, THAT SWEET'S ... A remarkably moving and poignant autograph letter, signed, from Abraham Lincoln as president, writing to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on behalf of his former Illinois Whig colleague, Martin P. Sweet, who seeks to have a second son appointed to the Union Army even after his first had fallen in battle. Lincoln and Sweet were political colleagues and friends, and the two shared the experience of losing sons at a young age. Not only had Sweet's son, Lieutenant John J. Sweet, died at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862, but Lincoln himself had lost two young sons, most recently his son, Willie, who died of typhoid fever in February 1862. Lincoln's brief letter to Stanton is fewer than one hundred words, and contains the terse and eloquent rhythms that would categorize many of his most famous utterances, including the Gettysburg Address later in 1863.The text, written on Executive Mansion stationery, reads in full:"Hon. Sec. of War; Sir, Martin P. Sweet, an Illinois friend of mine, had a son, a first Lieut. in the 5th Regular Cavalry, who was killed in the battle of Gaines' Mill. He now asks that another son – brother to the deceased – be appointed to the place or a place in the same regiment, in which the father says the officers tell him there are vacancies. The young man's na

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