Description:

Lincoln tells Attorney General Bates to "please preserve" this letter from Judge Foot _ "a cousin to the Admiral" in which he offers himself as U.S. District Judge until "a suitable person" will be found to take the position

Autograph Endorsement Signed "A. Lincoln" as President on verso of blank integral leaf of a two page Autograph Letter Signed "Saml A. Foot" to him, 4.75" x 7.75", front and verso. Washington, June 4, 1863. Faint ink streak and 1/4-inch line pass vertically through Lincoln's six-line endorsement, not materially affecting its appearance. Fine condition.

Foot, a former Judge of the N.Y. Court of Appeals, writes, in full, "Mr President _ Dear Sir. Under the new arrangements, which it is understood are about being made in respect to South Carolina, the Government may need the services of some one as U.S. District Judge for the District of that State. I offer my services for that purpose, with the understanding and pledge on my part, to resign whenever the Government can find a suitable person, a citizen of that state, to take the position."

Lincoln has forwarded Foot's letter to his Attorney General, Edward Bates, writing, in full, "Attorney General, please preserve _ Judge Foot is cousin to the Admiral, & is vouched as an excellent man." Docketed in unknown hand: "South Carolina / District Judge / ship / June 4 1863." No District Judges for South Carolina are listed in the "U.S. Official Register" for 1863 or 1865.

New Yorker Samuel A. Foot (1790-1878), a member of the African Colonization Society (1831) and various temperance groups, served as Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1844-1852. As a Republican Member of the New York State Assembly (1856-1860), he introduced the resolutions resulting in a condemnation of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. His three eldest sons were killed in the Civil War. Foot's obituary in "The New York Times" mentions that he "was consulted by President Lincoln, whose warm friend he was on many occasions."

Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, son of Connecticut Governor and U.S. Senator Samuel A. Foot (1780-1846), and Judge Foot's cousin, was on his way to take command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for duty outside Charleston, South Carolina, when he died at New York on June 26, 1863, just three weeks after this letter was written.

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