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Lot 404: War of 1812 Veteran Petitions, 1843

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:480.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Lot  404: War of 1812 Veteran Petitions, 1843
<b>Post-Rev. War to Civil War</b><hr><b>War of 1812 Veteran Petitions To Be The House’s Sergeant-at-Arms or Doorkeeper!</b>

<b>November 1843, Unusual Petition By Infantry Officer Seeking Patronage for Himself and His Family.</b>
Printed Letter Signed (“A.B. Lindsley”), with a five-line autograph postscript, 1 page, 6.5” x 8.5,” Washington, November (c. 29th), 1843; addressed to “Sir,” the recipient is identified by a docket on the integral address leaf as the Honorable Congressman-Elect George Sykes, Democrat of New Jersey, first elected to the United States in 1843. In full: “I was for eight years a faithful servant to the House prior to March 1841, since which (being without employ) it has gone hard with my family of little ones. I desire a nomination for Sergeant -at- Arms, and failing therein, for Doorkeeper, and I invoke your appropriation. If not elected to either office, I should be glad of my former situation under a change of Doorkeeper, or be happy to have one of my sons appointed a page in the House. I was a 1st Lieut. U.S. Infantry during the late war with Great Britain. I have been much in the public service, and trust I may be thought to have some title to the sympathy of the House.” To which Lindsley has added in autograph: “Born in your place of revolutionary forefathers of the Lindsley family of Morris Co. I have still many connections there as well as endearing recollections.”

For most of the 19th century, the job of the House Sergeant-at-Arms was to enforce the (chiefly quorum) rules and regulations of the House, buy firewood to heat the chamber in winter, and guard the chamber during the months when Congress was in recess.