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EDWIN M. STANTON

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:350.00 USD Estimated At:700.00 - 900.00 USD
EDWIN M. STANTON
(1814 - 1869) Secretary of War in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet whose dismissal by Andrew Johnson led to impeachment hearings for the president. Fine content A.L.S. 1p. 8vo., Washington, Jan. 5, 1861. Just three months before the start of the Civil War, Stanton, then still Attorney General, writes to an ominous note to Lt. Gen. T. [?] Campbell, in full: "...Your note was received this morning. I am fully sensible of the dangers that beset us on all sides and threaten the the existence of this government. I trust you need no assurance that everything in my part within my power will be done to avert the impending ruin & save the country. I have firm faith that we shall pass through these troubles; and that with patience, forbearance; and resolution peace & harmony will be returned...". By January 1861 the Confederate States of America had been created and declared secessation. On January 4, Alabama troops seized an arsenal in Mobile, Alabama and, the day of this letter, Winfield S. Scott substituted a heavily-armed warship for a merchant vessel to sail to Ft. Sumter with supplies. The following day brought Florida's militia siege of a federal arsenal near Appalachiacola -- with five more states seceding before the month's end. Boldly penned and in very good condition.