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Lot 68
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Abraham Lincoln ANS Assisting "wife of a preacher...wants employment"
Abraham Lincoln ANS Assisting "wife of a preacher...wants employment"
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Description:

Abraham Lincoln
Washington, DC, August 18, 1863
Abraham Lincoln ANS Assisting "wife of a preacher...wants employment"
ANS

A brief note written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln on behalf of the wife of Captain Winfield Scott, an ordained Baptist minister who served in the 126th New York Infantry, [Washington, D.C.], dated August 18, 1863. Signed "A. Lincoln" and addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase. Lincoln asks Chase to meet with Mrs. Helen Scott, who was seeking employment. On the verso, in different hand, the card reads "Mrs. Winfield Scott." 1 p, measuring 3.25" x 2". The note has been PSA/DNA encapsulated and graded MINT 9, to the overall size of 5.25" x 3.25". Light toning and mat burn from prior mounting. A few small spots of staining and dampstaining. Mounting residue and ink stains on verso. Bold signature.

In full:

"Sec. of Treasury, please see this Lady who says she is wife of a preacher who is in the war as a Captain in the 126th N.Y. She wants employment. A. Lincoln / Aug. 18, 1863."

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Francis E. Spinner, a former Congressman from New York, as Treasurer of the United States in March 1861. Beginning in the fall of 1861, Spinner suggested employing women to cut and count Treasury notes, freeing the male clerks for military service. When Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase hesitated, Spinner suggested an experiment with one woman. When his handpicked subject did more work than any of the male clerks on the first day, the matter was settled.

Although many women sought the aid of congressmen and senators, some also appealed directly to President Abraham Lincoln for aid in obtaining a job in the Treasury Department. In this case, Mrs. Helen Scott appealed to Lincoln for a job, and he sent her to Secretary Chase for an interview. It appears that she had written a note to President Lincoln exactly two years earlier, on August 18, 1861, requesting an interview, writing, "A few moments private interview is respectfully craved with His Excellency, The President. / by a stranger / Mrs. Winfield Scott / Syracuse, N.Y." There is, however, no indication as to whether she received a job with the Treasury Department.

Historical Background:
At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864, Captain Winfield Scott, in command of both the 126th and the 125th New York regiments, was leading a charge, when he was wounded in the chest, but the force of the bullet was spent on a Bible he carried in his uniform pocket. He returned to command the next day, but five days later, an artillery shell ripped off part of his upper leg while he was charging a Confederate earthwork. He was left on the field for dead, but he recovered enough to demand to be taken to a field hospital. One of his soldiers carried him from the field. When Helen Scott first learned of his condition, she was refused permission to go to him. However, she managed to gain another meeting with President Lincoln, who gave her a pass to join her husband and arrange for his transfer home to New York.

Winfield Scott (1837-1910) was born in Michigan but moved to New York with his family when he was a child. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1859 and from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1861. After graduation, he became the pastor of a Baptist church in Syracuse, New York. In July 1859, he married Helen Louise Brown, and they had four daughters. He left his position as minister to raise a company and was commissioned on August 9, 1862, as captain of Company C of the 126th N.Y. Infantry. Dubbed the "fighting parson," Scott was wounded and taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in September but paroled the next day. He was wounded twice at the Battle of Gettysburg. In May 1864, he was again wounded twice at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and discharged in September because of his wounds. He served as pastor of Baptist churches in Leavenworth, Kansas; Denver, Colorado; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. In 1880, he became pastor of a church in San Jose, California. From 1882 to 1893, he served as a post chaplain in the regular army at several forts on the Pacific Coast and in Arizona. After visiting the Salt River Valley in 1888, Scott and his wife purchased 640 acres for $2.50 per acre, where he and his brother George founded the city of Scottsdale, Arizona. He began developing the area's potential for agriculture and as a health resort. He and his wife founded the Arizona Baptist Foundation and developed a school in the area. In 1897, the governor appointed Scott as chaplain of the Arizona National Guard. He moved to San Diego, California, in 1909, but died in Phoenix, Arizona, after surgery on a strangulated hernia.

Helen Louise Brown Scott (1838-1931) was born in New York and married Winfield Scott in July 1859, and they had four daughters. One of her brothers was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. After the war, she worked alongside her husband as he served as pastor of churches in Kansas, Colorado, and California, and as an army post chaplain. She and her husband founded the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1888, and they moved to San Diego in 1909. She died in San Diego.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 3.25" x 2"
  • Medium: ANS

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