Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President. Autograph letter signed ("A Lincoln") as President, to B[enjamin] F[ranklin] Watson, Washington, D.C., 8 August 1861. 1 full page, 8vo . Fine. LINCOLN ATTEMPTS TO HELP A PATRIOTIC MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT TURNED OUT OF OFFICE FOR POLITICAL REASONS A fine example of the solicitude and compassion shown by President Lincoln to the wrongs suffered by ordinary citizens. Lincoln responds to a complaint from Lt. Col. Watson: "Your despatch, which I return herewith, was received yesterday. I sent it to the Postmaster-General, with the note you see; and he returned it with the note you find below mine. I know nothing else of the matter except what you tell me. If I signed a paper, in making the change in the office, it was amongst others, without my being conscious of the particular one. I shall talk fully with the P.M.G. on the subject, when next I see him." Watson served as second in command of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry, one of those regiments which were first to march to the defense of Washington, D.C. after the firing on Fort Sumter. Watson, a young lawyer, had been the publisher of a Democratic newspaper and also served as postmaster of Lawrence, Massachusetts, but during his three months term in the army (he was mustered out on August 2) local political enemies had engineered his removal from office as Postmaster. Lincoln had signed the appointment of the new Postmaster. Watson protested this injustice. Lincoln, who of course knew nothing of the affair and had signed the order innocently, personally attended to the problem and offered Watson a number of other posts. Watson held out for some sort of military role, given the crisis facing the Union, but was surprised and gratified at Lincoln's efforts on his behalf. He contributed an account, years later, to Abraham Lincoln: Tributes from His Associates (Boston, 1895). The present letter is noted in Collected Works , ed. R.P. Basler, 4:543-544 (whereabouts then unknown) and published in Supplement 10:90.