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Lot 36
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Buchanan's future Secretary of War Joseph Holt signs bullet patent in 1859
Buchanan's future Secretary of War Joseph Holt signs bullet patent in 1859
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Description:

Civil War - 1859 bullet-making patent signed by Buchanan's future Secretary of War Joseph Holt and Secretary of Interior Jacob Thompson, both involved in intrigue at the onset of the Civil War

Partly Engraved Document Signed "Jacob Thompson" as Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, one page, 14.5" x 19.5". Washington, February 8, 1859. Completed in manuscript. Countersigned "J Holt" as Commissioner of Patents. On vellum. Attached with pink ribbon to a description of the invention on both sides of two vellum pages of identical size. Attached between the document and the description are two 21" x 22" detailed drawings of his invention on thinner paper, signed by the inventor "Charles B. Allen" and by witnesses "Benjamin Love" and "William Ogle." Embossed pink paper Seal of the Patent Office, 2.5" diameter, affixed to the ribbon at lower left. Superb large vignette of the Patent Office at top, headed by the American eagle in flight, and the words "The United States of America." Numbered "22,843" at top left. Last page of description is partially toned with slight separation where the horizontal and vertical folds meet. Light soiling. Dark signatures. Fine condition.

In full, "To All to Whom These Letters Patent Shall Come: Whereas Charles B. Allen of Philadelphia Pennsylvania has alleged that he has invented a new and useful Improved Machine for making Rivets, Bullets, &c &c which he states has not been known or used before his application has made oath that he is a Citizen of the United States that he does Machine and that the same hath not to the best of his knowledge and belief been previously known or used, has paid into the treasury of the United States the sum of Thirty dollars and presented a petition to the Commissioner of Patents signifying a desire of obtaining an exclusive property in the said Machine and praying that a patent may be granted for that purpose These are Therefore to grant according to law to the said Charles B. Allen his heirs administrators or assigns for the term of fourteen years from the eighth day of February one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine the full and exclusive right and liberty of making constructing using and rending to others to be used the said Machine a description whereof is given in the words of the said Charles B. Allen in the schedule hereunto annexed and is made a part of these presents."

Penned at the upper edge of the last description page is "C.B. Allen 332 Walnut." Located in Philadelphia between South 3rd and 4th Streets, 332 Walnut Street is just two blocks from Independence Hall.

In the description, Allen says, in part, "The claim and engraving explain the nature of this invention ... I claim the revolving shafts C C with their inclined planes e e1 eel and former, as described, and the mould-wheels or formers D D attached thereto, in combination with the yoke F and wheel G, whereby the extremities of the shafts to which the mould wheels or formers are attached are made to approximate and separate. I also claim the bar N and the inclined plane n, in combination with the rod/and cutterwheel g, constructed and operated substantially as described, whereby the portion of metal which has been moulded or formed may, when so desired, be severed or detached ... In the manufacture of slugs for fire arms the cup or cavity in the base of the ball may be formed by giving a conical shape to the end of the gauge-rod P against which the metal is placed..." A few passages in the description have been inexplicably crossed out in pencil.

A former Mississippi Congressman, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson (1810-1885) served from March 6, 1857, to January 8, 1861, when, siding with the Confederacy, he resigned; on January 9th, Mississippi seceded. Thompson served as Inspector General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. As confidential agent of the Confederacy to Canada in 1864 and 1865, Thompson directed a Confederate terrorist plot to burn down the City of New York on November 25, 1864 in retaliation for Union Generals Sheridan and Sherman's tactics in the South. Thompson's Oxford, Mississippi manor, "Home Place," was burned down by Union troops in 1864.

Joseph Holt (1807-1894) was U.S. Commissioner of Patents from 1857 until he was appointed Buchanan's Postmaster General on March 9, 1859, a month after he signed this patent. On December 31, 1860, Holt succeeded former Virginia Gov. John B. Floyd as Secretary of War. As Judge Advocate of the Army (1862-1875), Holt was the Presiding Judge in the trial of the Lincoln conspirators; George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and Mrs. Mary Surratt were found guilty and were hanged.

On March 5, 1861, the day after the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Holt wrote "To the Editors of the National Intelligencer" about an extract from an address recently made to the people of Mississippi by Jacob Thompson. Holt specifically quotes the following from Thompson's address: "As I was writing my resignation [as Secretary of the Interior], I sent a dispatch to Judge Longstreet that the Star of the West was coming with reinforcements. The troops were thus put on their guard, and when the Star of the West arrived she received a warm welcome from the booming cannon, and soon beat a retreat. I was rejoiced the vessel was not sunk but I was still more rejoiced that the concealed trick, first conceived by Gen. [Winfield] Scott and adopted by Secretary [of War Joseph] Holt, but countermanded by the President when too late, proved a failure." Holt continues, "We have here a distinct and exultant avowal, on the part of the Hon. Secretary [Thompson], that, while yet a member of the Cabinet, he disclosed to those in open rebellion against the United States information which he had derived from his official position, and which he held under the seal of a confidence that, from the beginning of our history as a nation, had never been violated. This step not merely endangered the highest public interests, but put in imminent jeopardy the lives of two hundred and fifty innocent men, who had never wronged the Hon. Secretary [Thompson], and who in proceeding to Charleston harbor were simply obeying the lawful command of their superior officers ... So far from the movement for the re-inforcement of Fort Sumter having been a 'concealed trick,' it was repeatedly and frankly discussed in the Cabinet, and when a conclusion was finally reached, the resolution of the President was announced in terms as emphatic as he probably ever addressed to one of his Secretaries. 'It is now all over, and reinforcements must be sent,' was his language; and these words were spoken in open council, the honorable Secretary of the Interior himself being present..." The "warm welcome from the booming cannon" mentioned by Thompson was actually cannon shots from a South Carolina battery on Morris Island aimed at "The Star of the West." They were poor shots; the ship suffered a minor hit.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The "Star of the West," a Union merchant ship, was fired upon on January 9, 1861, undoubtedly as a result of Thompson's dispatch that it was coming, as it tried to bring supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This incident was the first time shots were exchanged between North and South, but it did not start the Civil War. That happened at Fort Sumter three months later, on April 12, 1861.

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