Beschreibung:

Lot of 11, including: 1p, [Washington, DC] House of Reps., 28 Dec 1836. ALS by Franklin Pierce to Marston, regarding appointment of officers to the Engineer Corps. 1p, Dartmouth College, 29 Aug. 1837. ALS from Nathan Lord, President of Dartmouth College, letter of recommendation for Gilman Marston. 1p, Dartmouth College, 29 Aug. 1837. ALS from Roswell Shurtleff, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy at Dartmouth College, letter of recommendation for Gilman Marston. 1p, Cambridge, 7 June 1841. ALS from Joseph Story, Associate Justice of Supreme Court, to Gilman Marston giving permission to use Story as a reference. 2pp, Cambridge, 4 Dec. 1841. ALS from Simon Greenleaf, lawyer and jurist, to G. Barstow on legal matters. And 1p, Cambridge, 27 Dec. 1841. ALS from Simon Greenleaf to Gilman Marston about the previous matter (Barstow). Manuscript petition to Andrew Johnson, Hampton, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, 12 Sept. 1865, signed by 31 citizens of the town attesting to the character of William Robertson and requesting clemency and termination of his prison sentence; signed and docketed by Marston. Manuscript nomination for Daniel Webster as candidate for the Presidency, n.d.. And a group of 2 land grants from U.S. Grant, secretarially signed, each for 160 acres, dated 20 Sept. 1869; and a dinner invitation from the Minister of France to Gilman Marston, including Marquis de Montholon (Charles Tristan) who to this day is the main suspect for poisoning Napoleon. Gilman Marston (1811-1890) was a native of New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1837 and Harvard Law school in 1840. He served in state political positions until 1859 when elected to the U.S. House. When the Civil War broke our, Marston raised the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry, which saw service immediately at Bull Run, where Marston had his arm shattered. He refused amputation and eventually recovered to fight on the Peninsula, the second Bull Run encounter, and Fredericksburg. He was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and moved from the Army of the Potomac to the defenses of Washington, where he returned to his congressional seat. He established Point Lookout POW camp in Maryland, and returned to the field under W.F. "Baldy" Smith during the Bermuda Hundred campaign, and fought at Cold Harbor and Petersburg. He remained in the field with several commands until Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Marston resigned 20 April 1865. He continued to served in the U.S. House, then the New Hampshire House in 1872, 1873, and 1876-78. It is apparent when he declined the Governorship of Idaho in 1870, he was less willing to leave his home in Exeter than previously. And who could blame him? Pushing 60 years of age, he had just spent nearly four years in a bloody war, and was probably looking for a few quiet years. In 1870, Idaho was barely inhabited, with just 17,000 (Anglo) residents. By 1877, the war with the Nez Perce was heating up, possibly one reason Grant wanted someone with military experience out there. In fact, it would take several more tries for Grant to get a governor of the territory. Samuel Baird had declined the appointment just months before, and Alexander Conner would decline the same after Marston. Thomas Bowen accepted the appointment in July 1871, but left after just one week in office. Indiana-born Thomas Bennett would finally take on the challenge for a term of four years, leaving to represent Idaho in the House of Representatives. The population was exploding, nearly doubling in the decade of the 1870s, many of those were miners and other fortune seekers. After the discovery of one of the nation's richest silver deposits in 1884, people flooded to the area. By 1889 a constitutional convention was held, and in 1890, the year of Marston's death back home in New Hampshire, Idaho became the 43rd state. It would have been anything but a quiet retirement for this Granite Stater. Provenance: Acquired from an auction that included a large amo