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Grant Arranges Dinner at White House with Naval Figures
Grant Arranges Dinner at White House with Naval Figures
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Description:

Ulysses Grant
n.p., ca. 1873-1877
Grant Arranges Dinner at White House with Naval Figures
AN

ULYSSES S. GRANT, Autograph Note, ca. 1873-1877, Washington, D.C. 2 pp., 3.75" x 2.25". Slabbed; light soiling and toning on edges; very good.

In this brief note, President Ulysses S. Grant tells his secretary to invite his childhood friend Commodore Daniel Ammen, the chief of the Bureau of Navigation for the U.S. Navy; Grant's former Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie and his wife; and Admiral David Dixon Porter and his wife to dinner at the White House on the coming Thursday evening.

The endorsement by Grant's private secretary, Culver C. Sniffen, suggests that the dinner was held in January of some year. If this dinner was held in January 1875, the topic of discussion may have been an interoceanic canal through Nicaragua. Each of the plans proposed since colonial times makes use of Lake Nicaragua near the western border of the nation. The United States abandoned plans for a canal through Nicaragua early in the twentieth century when it focused on building a canal through Panama, but other international efforts to build a Nicaraguan canal have continued until as late as 2024. In 1880, Daniel Ammen wrote a book on the subject.

Complete Transcript
[Grant:] I wish Com. Ammen to dine here with Mr. & Mrs. Borie on Thursday at 6 O'Clock / Invite Adml & Mrs Porter also

[Endorsement by Secretary Culver Sniffen:] 1/18. Sent CCS

Daniel Ammen (1820-1898) was born in Ohio, and he and his brother Jacob attended school with Ulysses S. Grant, with whom he became best friends. Ammen once rescued Grant from drowning when they were children. Ammen entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1836 and served on a variety of vessels from the mid-1830s to the mid-1850s with service in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and South America. From 1855 to 1857, he served at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., then patrolled the Pacific Ocean on other ships. He was stationed in Baltimore at the beginning of the war but soon joined the Union blockade. In September 1861, he was appointed commander of a gunboat in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He took part in various engagements on the South Atlantic coast and was promoted to commander in 1862. In September 1863, he served as aide to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren aboard the USS Philadelphia during the Second Battle of Fort Sumter. He commanded the USS Mohican during the attacks on Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865. In 1865, he married Zoe Atocha (1836-1884), and they had two children, including Ulysses Grant Ammen (1871-1913), who later served as paymaster in the U.S. Navy. After the war, Daniel Ammen commanded a monitor and received a promotion to the rank of captain in 1866. After additional service in the Pacific, he served from 1869 to 1871 as chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Promoted to commodore in 1872, he was appointed chief of the Bureau of Navigation. In 1872, he was appointed a member of a commission to examine the feasibility of a canal through Nicaragua. He and the commission reported in favor of the route. He was promoted to rear admiral in December 1877 and served with the Bureau of Navigation until his retirement in June 1878. He authored a book entitled The American Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal Question (1880) and designed several naval accessories and the steel ram USS Katahdin (1893).

Adolph E. Borie (1809-1880) was born in Philadelphia to a leading merchant and manufacturer and his wife, the daughter of a wealthy Haitian planter. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1825 and later toured Europe and studied in Paris. In 1828, he joined his father's mercantile firm of McKean Borie & Co. From 1848 to 1860, he was the president of the Bank of Commerce in Philadelphia. In 1839, he married Elizabeth Dundas McKean, but they had no children. In 1843, he served as a consul to Belgium, and when the Whig Party dissolved, he became a Republican. When the Civil War began, he became a close associate of General Ulysses S. Grant and strongly supported the Union cause and the Lincoln administration. He was a founding member of Philadelphia's Union League and aided in recruiting and equipping several regiments. In March 1869, President Grant nominated Borie to be Secretary of the Navy. Borie had little interest in the job, and ranking Admiral David Dixon Porter generally managed the department. Borie made a few changes during his brief tenure, but he quietly resigned in late June 1869, after serving for three and a half months. He cited frail health and returned to his business interests in Philadelphia. He remained close friends with Grant and joined the former president on much of his world tour of 1877-1879. The travels took a toll on Borie's health, and he died in Philadelphia in February 1880.

David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) was born in Pennsylvania and began naval service at the age of ten as a midshipman on a ship commanded by his father, Commodore David Porter (1780-1843). He served in the Mexican Navy from 1824 to 1828, when his father was its overall commander. The younger Porter obtained a new appointment as midshipman in the US Navy in 1829, married Georgy Ann Patterson (1818-1893) in 1839, was promoted to lieutenant in 1841, and served in the Mexican War. After the war, he took a leave of absence to command civilian ships. When the Civil War began, Porter returned to active duty. He was promoted to commander and given charge of a flotilla of twenty mortar boats to be used against the forts guarding the entrance of the Mississippi River below New Orleans. They would be a part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron commanded by Porter's adoptive brother, Captain David G. Farragut (1801-1870). In mid-1862, Porter was ordered to Hampton Roads to aid General George B. McClellan in his Peninsula Campaign. By October, he was back on the Mississippi River, now as Acting Rear Admiral in charge of the Mississippi River Squadron. He quickly became friends with General William T. Sherman and later with General Ulysses S. Grant and played a key role in the siege of Vicksburg. Late in the summer of 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles transferred Porter to command the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and tasked him with closing the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners. Cooperating with General Alfred H. Terry, Porter's fleet successfully captured Fort Fisher, the Confederate fort protecting Wilmington, in January 1865. Porter toured the captured Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, with President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. After the war, Porter served as superintendent of the US Naval Academy from 1865 to 1869, where he initiated reforms in the curriculum to increase professionalism. In 1866, he was promoted to vice admiral, and in 1870, he became the second full admiral in US history, behind his adoptive brother Farragut. He served as de facto Secretary of the Navy in the early days of the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, but his administration led some Congressional leaders to force Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie to resign after only a few months on the job. The new Secretary of the Navy, George Robeson, curtailed Porter's authority and eased him into semi-retirement.

Culver Channing Sniffen (1844-1930) was born in Manhattan, New York, and attended Brooklyn's College Grammar School. In 1866, he was appointed a clerk on the White House staff of President Andrew Johnson. In 1869, he was appointed an executive clerk in the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, and from 1873 to 1877, he was one of Grant's private secretaries. In the last days of his presidency, Grant commissioned Sniffen as a major and appointed him to the Pay Department of the U.S. Army. For the next several years, he served as an army paymaster in San Francisco, Arizona, Omaha, New York City, Texas, and Denver. During the Spanish-American War, he served as chief paymaster of the Fifth Army Corps in Cuba and New York. In 1899, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became deputy paymaster-general of the U.S. Army. After promotion to colonel (1901) and brigadier general (1906), he became the paymaster-general of the army from September 1906 until his mandatory retirement in January 1908.

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: Overall: 4" x 7" Card: 2.25" x 3.75"
  • Medium: AN

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