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Lincoln, Slavery Association Writes to the Secretary of State Recommending a Whig Ally from Illinois
Lincoln, Slavery Association Writes to the Secretary of State Recommending a Whig Ally from Illinois
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Description:

Abraham Lincoln
Washington, DC, June 23, 1849
Lincoln, Slavery Association Writes to the Secretary of State Recommending a Whig Ally from Illinois
ALS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Letter Signed, to John M. Clayton, June 23, 1849, Washington, DC. 1 p., 8" x 10". Expected folds; small loss and chipping along left side, not affecting text; scattered edge wear; closed tear in bottom edge; unevenly toned; docketed on verso.

In this letter to U.S. Secretary of State John M. Clayton, Abraham Lincoln carefully recommends Freeport Whig attorney Martin P. Sweet for a diplomatic position. While enthusiastic about Sweet, Lincoln was cautious as he had already made recommendations for other Illinois Whigs.

Sweet was very popular in northwestern Illinois. He did not receive a diplomatic appointment in 1849, and the following year, he again campaigned for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. His opponent was Democrat Thompson Campbell, who narrowly defeated Sweet with 50.7 percent of the vote to Sweet's 48.7 percent. Campbell won by declaring that he would support bills prohibiting slavery in U.S. territories and repealing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

During the 1858 campaign between Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Douglas, Campbell had been present at the debate in Freeport on August 27 to support Douglas, and Sweet was there to support Lincoln. However, at the next debate at Jonesboro on September 15, Lincoln tried to use Campbell's antislavery statements from 1850 to show that some of Douglas's supporters opposed slavery. The next day, Lincoln wrote to Sweet, "I mentioned your name, as Campbell's opponent, in a confused sentence, which, when I heard it myself, struck me as having something disparaging to you in it.... I really hope no more may be heard of it; but if there should, I write this to assure you that nothing can be farther from me than to feel, much less, intentionally say anything disrespectful to you."

In early January 1863, President Lincoln wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, "Martin P. Sweet, an Illinois friend of mine, had a son, a first Lieut. in the 5th Regular Cavalry, who was killed in the battle of Gaines' Mill. He now asks that another son—brother to the deceased—be appointed to the place or a place in the same regiment, in which the father says the officers tell him there are vacancies. The young man's name is ‘Martin A. Sweet.' I shall be personally gratified if this can be done without difficulty." John Jay Sweet, a 1st lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Cavalry, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1860 and was killed on June 27, 1862, at the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Virginia. His next younger brother, Martin Anthony Sweet (1841-1889), joined the 92nd Illinois Infantry in December 1863 and survived the war.

Complete Transcript
Washington, June 23, 1849
Hon: J. M. Clayton
Dear Sir:
My friend Martin P. Sweet, will probably be an applicant for some diplomatic appointment. A direct recommendation from me would be in conflict, as I think, with at least one recommendation I have already made, and might be excepted to by other aspirants in that portion of the ^our^ state where I reside. After saying so much, it affords me great pleasure to bear testimony in behalf of Mr Sweet's high merits intellectually, morrally and politically; and to repeat, what I have so often said, that some encouragement should be given to the North Western District of Illinois. I have not any doubt that in that District, Mr Sweet is the favorite, for any appointment which may be given.
Your Obt Servt
A. Lincoln

[Docketing on verso:] Martin P. Sweet / Letter of / Geo B Sargent / Hon A Lincoln

John M. Clayton (1796-1856) was born in Delaware and graduated from Yale College in 1815. He was admitted to the bar in 1819 and held several state offices in Delaware as a Federalist for the next decade. The Delaware Senate elected Clayton in 1829 to the U.S. Senate, where he became an ally of Henry Clay and joined the Whig opposition to the Democrats. He left the U.S. Senate in 1836 and became the chief justice of Delaware. He returned to the U.S. Senate in 1845 and opposed the annexation of Texas but supported the Mexican War. For his support of Zachary Taylor in the election of 1848, Clayton gained appointment as Secretary of State. In that office, he signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) that committed Great Britain and the United States to a cooperative effort to construct the Panama Canal. Clayton resigned just days after Taylor's sudden death in July 1850 and returned to the U.S. Senate in 1853. He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and, with the collapse of the Whig Party, joined the Know Nothings. He died of kidney disease before the Republican Party absorbed most former Whigs and Know-Nothings.

Martin P. Sweet (1806-1864) was born in New York and moved to Illinois in 1837. He was a farmer and a licensed Methodist minister in Winnebago County. In 1840, he moved to Freeport and opened a law office. He soon became a prominent member of the Whig Party in Stephenson County, where he campaigned for Whig candidates in state and federal elections. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1844 and again in 1850. After the second loss, he left politics and the law and devoted the next five years to the ministry. In 1855, he reopened his law office and continued practicing in Freeport until his death.

Provenance:
Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California
Property from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation

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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