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U.S. Grant Writes Meade Approving the Removal of the Governo

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:1,100.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
U.S. Grant Writes Meade Approving the Removal of the Governo

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Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
ALS, 1 1/2pp on ruled Headquarters Army of the United States, Washington, D.C. Feb. 27, 1868. Written to Major General George Gordon Meade as Head of the Department of the South.

In the wake of the Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867, the Federal government revoked the legitimacy of many southern state governments. Ordered to hold a new Constitutional Convention at a cost of $400,000, Governor Charles Jones Jenkins of Georgia refused. When he was removed from office by Meade, Jenkins fled the state with the executive seal, and deposited state treasury funds in a New York bank.

In this letter, Grant writes Meade thanking him for copies of his correspondence with President Andrew Johnson regarding the removal of Jenkins and the Georgia treasurer. Apparently Grant, fearing the sensitive nature of Johnson's message, had destroyed the original ...but I presumed he expected to direct me in mutilating it. Clarifying that all was well, Grant writes: I told the President that I had received a dispatch from you in which you meditated removing the Treasurer but said nothing about removing the Governor. This was before your final action which I heartily approved of including the removal of the Governor. Your truly U.S. Grant, General.

A fine letter relating to reconstruction and the contentious Georgia Constitutional crisis of 1868 (see also Lot 276 in this auction for additional correspondence from this period of Georgia history.) Collected by W.L. Hammersley, a well known 19th century Denver antiquarian (obituary included). 

Condition: Usual folds, and toning.