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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

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Auction Date:2014 Aug 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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
ALS signed “Joshua L. Chamberlain,” two pages, lightly-lined on two adjoining sheets, 5.75 x 9, November 18, 1899. Letter to Judge William Penn Whitehouse, a justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. In full: “I do not know what I can say to you on receiving your letter of this morning but something like what I said to Judge Symonds,—that I feel as if it does not matter so much now whether I receive any office or not; for the true prizes of life and the lasting reward of any possible well-doing are in such recognition and friendship as are witnessed by your generous letters, and ensured by what I know of the hearts beneath them. You set before me an ideal which, so far as opportunity remains, I shall strive to attain to. I think it almost unfortunate that the reserve of our conventional customs forbids us to express our friendly sentiments fully except upon sad or supreme occasions so I have to pray that such may be far off between us.” In fine condition, with uniform toning. Judge Whitehouse was on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1890 to 1913; the other judge mentioned, Joseph W. Symonds, had served on the court from 1878 to 1884. Chamberlain had previously served as Maine’s governor, and it is possible that this letter was in response to an inquiry about his interest in a congressional seat—Maine’s own Thomas B. Reed had resigned from Congress and his powerful position as Speaker of the House in March 1899, and his private secretary was elected to fill the vacancy.