Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, to "Mrs. Gov. French," wife of former Illinois Governor Augustus C. French, Washington, D.C., 16 May 1864. 1 page, 4to, on Executive Mansion stationery, integral blank, imperceptible dampstain at extreme lower corner, otherwise in fine condition. AS FIGHTING RAGES AT SPOTSYLVANIA, LINCOLN FURNISHES HIS AUTOGRAPH "TO RELIEVE AND COMFORT OUR BRAVE SOLDIERS" "Mrs. L[incoln] tells me that you request my autograph to be used at the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair. Though much pressed for time, some portion spent in efforts to relieve and comfort our brave soldiers can not but be well spent. Therefore I cheerfully send the autograph. Yours very truly A. Lincoln." The Spring campaigns of the Army of the Potomac were launched on 5 May 0864. Grant's Army of the Potomac, 65,000 strong, crossed the 0appahannock in force. Lee's Confederates resisted stubbornly in a the thickly wooded areas which came to be called "the Wilderness." Grant's armies suffered the heaviest Union casualties of the entire 0ar. "I purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," Grant wired the President. From May 9 to 18th Grant's and Lee's armies 0ought relentlessly in the vicinity of the courthouse at Spotsylvania. In the first 30 days of this campaign, Union casualties totalled over 00,000 men killed and wounded. 0incoln was well-known for his generous support of the various Sanitary 0airs, held throughout the war to raise money for the relief and aid of BYEk and wounded Union soldiers. In January 1864 Lincoln donated a laboriously hadwritten copy of his Gettysburg Address to the Metropolitan Sanitary Fair, held in New York in April 1864 (that copy now at the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, Illinois). In February the President wrote out another copy at the request of George Bancroft for the Baltimore Sanitary fair. That fair copy (now in the Cornell University Library), proved unsuitable in format of a collection of manuscripts to be published in a volume of lithographic facsimiles planned by the fair's organizers, so Lincoln was imposed upon to write yet another transcript of his address (now in the Lincoln Room at the White House), which he supplied in early March. On March 2, Lincoln wrote a brief letter to "The New England Kitchen," sponsers of the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair (see Basler vii:220) That letter, it is recorded, was sold for the astonishingly high price (for its time) of $100.00 (Basler, 7:220). Aside from the solicitations of Mary Lincoln mentioned in the present letter, Lincoln was importuned by at least one other person on behalf of the Sanitary Fair. On May 14, Representative Joseph W. McClurg of Missouri wrote to tell Lincoln of "the anxiety to have your Photograph and Autograph at the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair. I hope you will see proper to gratify those who do so much desire them...." Lincoln, in his customary fashion, obliged (Basler, 7:343). The Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair, held from 17 May to l8 June at St. Louis, was the longest running of all the Civil War sanitary fairs, and grossed over half a million dollars for the relief of stricken Union soldiers. Two days after the formal opening ceremonies, Alfred Mackay, an officer of the fair commission, telegraphed the President: "The officers & executive committees of Ladies & Gentlemen of the fair greet you warmly & desire that your endeavours to suppress the rebellion will be crowned with success. Our fair has opened splendidly. The Mississippi Valley will do her full share to aid the sick & wounded soldiers. God bless you" (Basler, 7:353n). We have been unable to to determine whether the present letter was in fact, sold at auction during the Fair. For further details on the Fair see, P. & M. Kantor, ( , 1990), pp.167- . The letter is apparently unpublished, not in Basler, but is noted in Lincoln Day by Day, 1991, 2:258. Provenance : Cyrus French Wicker, a