Description:

Welles Gideon

Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Urged to Recommend NY Harbormaster by the Candidate's Wife

 

3pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by Susan Anna Friend, the wife of a New York Democratic Party officer-seeker. Written in Middletown, New York on January 7, 1869, and mentioning family friend Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles (1802-1878). Cream bifold stationery with embossed "F" decoration at top of first page. In near fine condition, with minor paper folds, each page measuring 4.25" x 7.25". From the Collection of Norman Boas of Seaport Autographs and recently purchased at Christie's December 5, 2017 sale.

 

Susan Anna Friend wrote this letter to New York Governor John T. Hoffman (1828-1888) petitioning him to appoint her husband to the position of Harbormaster. As a reference, the intrepid Mrs. Friend enclosed the reply of then acting Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "I wrote a short time since to Secretary Welles, asking him to say a word in behalf of his old friend and the warm personal friend of the Doctors [sic father. I enclose to you his reply. I can now understand his hesitating in involving himself in a matter between one of your own constituents and yourself. I did not think so far or I should not have ventured to address him."

Gideon Welles, or "Neptune", as Abraham Lincoln affectionately dubbed him, served as Secretary of the Navy during the entire duration of the Civil War and into the Johnson administration. In the Lincoln cabinet, Welles focused on reorganizing a naval service riddled with Confederate defections, and mobilizing recruits, vessels, and supplies. Throughout the war, Welles and his navy blockaded Southern ports, weakening an economy already overly dependent on cotton exports. Welles remained at his post until 1869.

Governor Hoffman might have been intrigued by Mrs. Friend's letter, but he would soon face troubles of his own. Hoffman was the last Mayor of New York City to be elected Governor of New York state, probably in part because of his connection to the Tammany Hall machine operated by William "Boss" Tweed.

 

Provenance: Ex-Christie's December 5, 2017 sale; Ex-Norman Boas, Seaport Autographs

 

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