219

Whitelaw Reid Typed Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Whitelaw Reid Typed Letter Signed

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2021 May 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, 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
TLS as the U.S Minister to France, six pages, 7.5 x 10, Legation des Etats Unis d'Amerique letterhead, November 6, 1889. Lengthy letter to future Secretary of State John Hay, attempting to recall a deal he had made with Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana at the White House 25 years ago, in part: "My 'agreement with Mr. Dana's is not so precise as you seem to think. He asked if I recalled the circumstances, and I did; and then if I remembered seeing you there, and I did not. I said, however, that my recollection on this point was not clear, and also that I could not be sure whether it was the night of the October or the November election. I can distinctly recollect that I went first to the White House, and that I asked for you first, and then for Mr. Lincoln. I have the impression that I was told you had gone to the War Department with him; but the whole matter is so vague that I would not think of attempting to make a consecutive story out of it, even for a private letter, much less for print.

What I do recollect distinctly is being shown immediately into a private room where Mr. Lincoln and one or two others were sitting about the fire. Among these was the Indiana secretary—Usher, I think,—who congratulated me on something I had recently written about Emerson Etheridge whom the Republicans were then first suspecting of an intention to organize the House against them, through his power of making up the roll. Usher told me something more about Etheridge, and said I might make effective use of that also. Lincoln, turning to me said: 'No, Reid, I would not do it. Emerson ain't worth more than a squirrel load of powder anyway.' I remember also, being a little crestfallen in finding that some dispatch that I had brought in with what I supposed to be late news, had been anticipated by the War Department dispatches. If Stanton's demeanor was ugly, I did not know it. I don't remember, however, having heard of the alleged order about me; although nothing that Stanton did, at any time, or about anybody, would surprise me. He asked me to come to see him, in Washington, not long before his death, read my sketch of Sherman, from 'Ohio in the War,' in proof, and told me, to my great surprise, that it was too hard on Sherman. When I expressed wonder at his saying that, he replied: 'The longer I live, the more I am convinced that a great secret in life is the art of learning to forget.'" In fine condition, with overall brushing to the signature.

Known as one of the most powerful and eloquent speakers of his day, Emerson Etheridge was a Tennessee congressman and senator (1819–1902) who was one of the few Southern congressmen to oppose the expansion of slavery and denounce Southern secession on the eve of the Civil War. Though a Southern Unionist, he criticized Abraham Lincoln over the Emancipation Proclamation.