Civil War-dated autograph endorsement signed as president, "A. Lincoln," on a 3.75 x 7.75 sheet clipped from a larger document, January 11, 1865. Lincoln writes, in full: "I personally know Dr. Somers & suppose his appointment will be proper if the vacancy exists.” The upper portion contains a handwritten petition directed to the president, which reads: “Petition of L. R. Webber & 32 Citizens of Champaign Co. Ill. Recommending Dr. Winston Somers for Surgeon of Bd. of En. 7th Dist. Ills.” In very good condition, with light creasing, toning from prior display, and an old tape stain impinging on the left edge of the endorsement.
Dr. Winston Somers was a physician who, in 1843, moved his family to Urbana, Illinois, and where Somers became friends with Abraham Lincoln; Urbana was one of the towns of the Eighth Judicial Circuit where Lincoln once practiced law. Somers’s son, James Waller, helped to organize the state Republican Party and he actively campaigned for Lincoln in 1858 and 1860. This work led to President Lincoln appointing Somers to a position in the Department of the Interior in 1861, and to a distinguished career of 25 years of public service in Washington.
On January 11, 1865, the same day General Robert E. Lee urged the Confederate Congress to pass legislation to enlist black slaves in exchange for their freedom during the Siege of Petersburg, an ordinance of emancipation officially freed the slaves of Missouri some two years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect in states that had joined the Confederacy.
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