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99

Abraham Lincoln

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Abraham Lincoln

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Auction Date:2012 Aug 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Handwritten war-dated endorsement, signed as president, “A. Lincoln,” dated June 4, 1863, on the reverse of the second integral page of a two-page letter (lightly-lined) to him from Samuel A. Foot, dated June 4, 1863. Foot writes, in full: “Under the new arrangements, which it is understood are about being made in respect to South Carolina, the Government may need the services of some one as U. S. District Judge for the District of that State. I offer my services for that purpose, with the understanding and pledge on my part, to resign whenever the Government can find a suitable person, a citizen of that state, to take the position.” On the reverse Lincoln has forwarded Foot’s letter to his Attorney General, Edward Bates, writing, in full, “Attorney General, please preserve—Judge Foot is cousin to the Admiral, & is vouched as an excellent man. A. Lincoln, June 4, 1863.” Letter is also docketed in unknown hand: “South Carolina District Judgeship, June 4, 1863.” In very good to fine condition, with intersecting folds, scattered light soiling, a thin line of toning through endorsement (and Lincoln’s “A”), and scattered light creasing.

Just months after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (referred to in this letter as “the new arrangements”), Samuel A. Foot, former presiding judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, offered his services to stand in as District Judge for South Carolina. Though the Proclamation asserted the freedom of slaves in the rebellious states and offered no compensation to their owners, earlier legislation was in conflict, requiring that individuals were to return runaway slaves to their owners. Federal judges would have to rule on the new law, for which purpose abolitionists like Foot were encouraged to render their services. Despite Lincoln’s glowing endorsement of Foot, whom the New York Times referred to as Lincoln’s “warm friend on many occasions,” the Attorney General’s office left the judgeship vacant. This war-dated document holds an excellent personal endorsement for a friend and fellow abolitionist at a critical time in the battle against slavery.
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