Description:

Hamlin Hannibal 1809 - 1891 President Lincoln's VP, Hannibal Hamlin, ALS penned just 7 days before Civil War

Single page letter, 3.5" x 4" laid into a page, scripted entirely in the hand of Hannibal Hamlin. Dated "Apr 5 1861" and signed by Hamlin as "H Hamlin" In near fine condition, extremely well preserved. Accompanied by lovely near fine printed engraving of Hamlin, 7" x 10.75" , in addition to documented provenance as noted below.


The letter by Hamlin was penned while in Hampden Maine, his town where he had lived and practiced law before his position as VP under Lincoln. Written during an important period in history, this ALS signed by Hannibal Hamlin was scripted just seven days before the First Battle of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War!

The historical events rapidly unfolded at this time, when it had become a concern that Anderson's command would run out of food by April 15, 1861, so in advance and to anticipate this need, President Lincoln ordered a fleet of ships to attempt entry into Charleston Harbor and supply Fort Sumter. By April 6, 1861, the day after Hamlin's letter was written, the first ships began to set sail for their rendezvous off the Charleston Bar. The first to arrive was Harriet Lane, the evening of April 11, 1861. But this fateful evening began a cascade of events. Beauregard sent three aides, to demand the surrender of the fort. Anderson declined, and the aides returned to report to Beauregard. After Beauregard sent the aides back to the fort and authorized Chesnut to decide whether the fort should be taken by force. The aides waited for hours while Anderson considered his alternatives and played for time. At about 3:00 a.m., when Anderson finally announced his conditions, Colonel Chesnut, after conferring with the other aides, decided that they were "manifestly futile and not within the scope of the instructions verbally given to us". The aides then left the fort and proceeded to the nearby Fort Johnson. On Friday, April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire, firing for 34 straight hours, on the fort.

These became known as the first shots of the war, and continued all day. Oddly enough the event was watched by many civilians in a celebratory spirit, with NO idea of what was to unfold ...

A beautiful ALS, by the Vice President during the Civil War era with outstanding provenance.

Provenance: This item was recently discovered in an extra illustrated volume of "History of the City of New York" by Mary L. Booth, New York W. R. C. Clark, 1867. Originally two volumes, the monumental task of expanding the work to 21 volumes by none other than Emery E. Childs esquire of New York City. In volume 1 of this work exists a lovely india ink Drawing of Mary L. Booth along with a notation "presented by her to E E C" in pencil. Next to the title page we find an original letter of Booth to Childs dated April 4, 1872 " I am in receipt of your favor of the 4th inst., and am grateful to hear that you are taking the trouble to illustrate my History of the City of New York in the manner you describe. I shall be happy to see you, should you favor me with a callas I am usually in my office during business hours and should be pleased to facilitate your Enterprise by any means in my power"

It is assumed that the book took several years to assemble at which point, assumedly through Childs, it made its way to Senator Charles B. Farwell of Chicago who took the seat of John A. Logan in 1887. Farwell had an extensive library that fortunately survived the great Chicago fire in 1871 having been housed in his Lakeside home. In the American Bibliopolist of November 1871 there is an article about the devastation to libraries caused by the tragedy . "Mr C. B. Farwell's library is also fortunately far out from the city, at his country house, and is safe, The same remark will also apply to the extensive collection of books and curiosities belonging to Mr. E. E. Childs." This establishes the Chicago connection between Childs and Farwell.

That these letters were preserved for over 140 years and have never been on the market for that period is remarkable on many levels. It is the state of being wedged in these volumes that also account for what is mostly the pristine state of preservation.

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