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Canadian lawyer and politician (1821-1893) who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He was also the first native-born Canadian Prime Minister, and the first to serve as Prime Minister while sitting in the Senate rather than the House of Commons. Scarce LS signed “J. J. C. Abbott,” one page, 7.75 x 10, August 19, 1879. Addressed from Montreal, a letter to his accountant, William Hay, written in the midst of an election campaign, in full: “I have a letter to-day from a man named Bedard of a Muddy Branch, who asks me for payment of an account which I enclose you. Mr. Beauchamp also spoke to me the other day about some account or accounts at Muddy Branch. I daresay you have informed me of these, but if so I have forgotten; and I should like these people to be paid anything that is lawfully due them, and that I can pay with propriety. Will you kindly write me on the subject, and let me know how the accounts stand, so that I may pay what are right and legal of them; but pray be careful not to make any illegal charges.” In very good to fine condition, with tears and small areas of paper loss to the rough top edge. As it turned out, John Abbott won his seat in Parliament in the February 1880 election, only to have his victory declared void because of bribery allegations. He was, however, subsequently elected in a by-election in August 1881. Signed letters from early Canadian prime ministers are not often seen.
In 1849, as a young man, Abbott signed the ‘Montreal Annexation Manifesto,’ calling for Canada to join the United States, an action he regretted later as a youthful error. Before becoming Prime Minister, he was a prominent lawyer in Montreal, where his most celebrated case was the defense of four of the recaptured Confederate agents who had raided Saint Albans, Vermont, from Canadian soil during the Civil War. Abbott successfully argued that the Confederates were ‘belligerents’ rather than ‘criminals’ and therefore should not be extradited.
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