Beschreibung:

Property of a New York Collector
Lincoln, AbrahamAutograph endorsement signed ("A. Lincoln") as sixteenth President, directing the bearer of a manuscript petition from "Many Citizens of Loyalty" of Hickman, Kentucky, to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
4 lines, [Washington], early December 1864, on the verso of the second leaf of a manuscript petition addressed "To the Honr. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States," Hickman, Kentucky, 6 December 1864, 2 pages (232 x 178 mm) on a bifolium of blue-ruled machine-laid paper; stained at upper margin of first leaf, a few very short fold separations.
In a citizens' petition carried to Lincoln by Parson N. N. Cowgill, border-state loyalists implore the president to establish a permanent military post at Hickman. Because of daily raids by rebel forces, which the Unionists had no power to repel, they ask the Lincoln "to instruct our commander Brig. Genl. Meredith," with whom they had already consulted, "to make a permanent military post at this place." The petition goes on to enthusiastically elaborate the benefits of such a plan: "We dont ask it for our own protection exclusively, but for the great benefit it will be to the Federal Army; we have a district of country comprising some 6 or 8 counties, (in area) about two hundred miles! it being varied in its products, offers every inducement to the Federal government to have it protected, and let all of its resources be brought forward to sustain our army, our worthy and truly Union friends. Parson N. N. Cowgill can give you a correct topography of our place and country. We would ask of you to extend our most appreciable Commander’s district to the Hatchie River as this point is the natural outlet for all the cotton and tobacco raised in that section of the country!" The petition concludes with the optimistic observation that Unionists "trust in Divine Providence [that] you may be awakened to our great necessity, and grant us the humble request we have made of you!"
The citizens of Hickman were joined in their request by General Solomon Meredith, who had led the "Iron Brigade" at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and was at the time commander of the post at Paducah, Kentucky. On 9 December, Meredith added a lengthy note to the integral blank of the petition: "I am personally acquainted with Parson N. N. Cowgill and know him to be an honest, patriotic and loyal man. The petition of which he is the bearer asking that Hickman be made a permanent military post I would most earnestly recommend to be granted. The Government will be benefited equally with the citizens by adopting the course proposed, and the benefit both receive will be so much taken from the enemy who now occupy in little squads of guerrillas the whole country in that vicinity, and run off every thing of value to their army which they can lay hands on."
Lincoln forwarded the petition to Edwin Stanton: "Submitted to the Sec. of War who is requested to see the bearer." Perhaps in response to Lincoln's endorsement, General Meredith added a postscript: "I strongly recomend that a military post may be established at Hickman Ky. by the Secy of War."
While Hickman did not receive a permanent military post, in August Lincoln had declared martial law in this area of Kentucky, suspending the writ of habeas corpus to empower Union commanders such as Meredith to unilaterally arrest Confederate spies, sympathizers and bandits. This policy seems not to have kept the rebels in check, however. On 13 December 1864, H. C. Callett, M.D., wrote to the president from Paducah, reporting that the District of Western Kentucky was still under duress and asking that General Meredith remain in his position: "Since our delegate Parson N. N. Cowgill has left here, we find a change has taken place, in our district, that is producing very great dissatisfaction, and militateing very much against, the interest of our, national cause … I can say this to you, without fear of contradiction if you wish to keep down; this de[a]dly malicious feeling in West Ky and Tennessee; dont remove or make any chang[e] in our high and honorable friend Genl. Merediths command …" (Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/mal3924300/).
PROVENANCE:Sotheby Parke Bernet, 24 November 1980, lot 204 — Sotheby's, 21 June 2007, lot 59 (undesignated consignor)