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Civil War-dated handwritten endorsement signed as president, "Respectfully submitted to the Sec. of War. A. Lincoln, Jan. 7, 1864," on an off-white 2.5 x 1.75 sheet clipped from a document. Double-matted and framed with an engraved portrait of Abraham Lincoln to an overall size of 10.25 x 15.25. Frame backing bears a copy of the original 1977 receipt from B. Altman and Company. In fine condition.
Although unconfirmed, this endorsement may relate to a request that Major Hiram B. Crosby of the 21st Connecticut Volunteers be appointed as assistant adjutant general of an army corps. The recommendation was sent to Lincoln on December 29, 1863, by Connecticut Governor William A. Buckingham, and then endorsed by Senator Lafayette S. Foster on January 7, 1864, when Lincoln ostensibly received the letter and forwarded it to War Secretary Edwin Stanton, who ultimately replied: ‘By the regulations of the Service the Staff officers of Corps Commanders are nominated by the Commander & if there be no objection to the individual it is approved by the Dept.’
On January 7, 1864, President Lincoln also withheld his signature for an order to execute a Union deserter, Henry Andrews. Lincoln wrote: ‘The case of Andrews is really a very bad one, as appears by the record before me. Yet before receiving this I had ordered his punishment commuted to imprisonment for duration of the war at hard labor, and had so telegraphed. I did this, not on any merit in the case, but because I am trying to evade the butchering business lately.’ This matter was, however, not directed to Stanton but to Salmon P. Chase, who communicated with George Hoadley, his old law partner, on the execution status of Andrews.
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