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Varina Davis

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Varina Davis

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Auction Date:2014 May 14 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : 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 dictated to Varina by her husband and signed “Jefferson Davis,” in her hand, one page both sides, 5.5 x 8.75, March 31, 1886. Letter to Colonel James Scharf. In full: “I wonder that you will still believe what the Newspapers say about me. It is not true that I have agreed to deliver an address at Montgomery or that I am in good health. The committee of the Association to erect a Monument to the Confed. dead on the spot where the Govt. of the Confederacy was inaugurated obtained my consent to be present at the laying of the cornerstone with the distinct understanding that I was not to be expected to make a speech because of physical disability and when the Chairman of the Committee recently came to see me, and found me ill of bilious fever, he assured me that he had given public notice that I was not to be expected or called upon to make a speech. Now my dear Sir having cleared away the debris, I proceed to the subject of your letter. Recent illness has prevented me from going to attend to important business at my old house in Warren Co. Missi. As soon as I can, I must go there. After my return I shall then have to go to Montgomery to be present on the day appointed for laying the cornerstone—the 28th or 29th of April. After my return from there I know of nothing to prevent us from taking up the proposed work i.e. the refutation of Sherman’s slanders. You must expect me to devolve most of the work upon you both in hunting up papers & the manual labor of writing, but I hope only a short time will be required to complete the task.” In fine condition, with a central vertical fold and a few corner creases. It took much persuasion from the mayor of Montgomery to finally get Davis to commit to being a guest of honor and laying a cornerstone for the monument to Alabama’s Civil War dead. The former Confederate president finally acquiesced, under the strict assurance he would not be required to speak, mostly due to the fact of his advanced age. His single-city stop would grow into an extended tour, with stops in Savannah and Atlanta for other dedications and political purposes.