Description:

Hamlin Hannibal

Hannibal Hamlin ALS regarding political corruption

 

2pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by future 15th U.S. Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891) as "H Hamlin" on bottom of second page. Marked "Confidential" near embossed stationery mark on first page. The third and fourth cream blue-lined pages are blank. In near fine condition, with expected light paper folds.

 

From Washington, DC on December 4, 1852, Maine Senator Hamlin wrote an unknown correspondent about political corruption in the Fillmore administration. Apparently, legislative and judicial positions were open to negotiation and outright sale. Officeholders were determined not by popular vote, but by an underground spoils system.

 

The letter reads in part: "N.L. Woodbury is for the arrangement However all should remain quiet + still, for the best chance of success will be in keeping still - If, when the time shall come to act, we can accomplish what I have suggested, I have now no doubt it should be done - I learn from G.F. Emery that the place is now worth after paying a clerk, $1200 net. Tho it is not supposed to be worth much more than half that sum, it is + will be worth net $1200.

 

Still all may fail, for God only can tell what will come out of it - There are so many applicants for every place that I shudder when I think of it - I shall try to do the best I can + we must wait + see what it will be."

 

The average annual income for a craftsman or manual laborer in 1850 was $200-400.

 

Hamlin's letter mentions some influential men of nineteenth-century Maine, like Ether Shepley (1789-1877), then serving as Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court; Nathan L. Woodbury (1798-1881), Postmaster General of Portland; and G.F. Emery, a Portland lawyer.

 

Hannibal Hamlin is best known for his service in the Lincoln cabinet. He served as a Maine Senator for three terms, interim Maine Governor, and U.S. Minister to Spain during the Garfield and Arthur administrations.

 

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