(ABRAHAM LINCOLN) Order for postal clerks to guard the Postm

Sale 2615 - Lot 169

Price Realized: $ 488

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(ABRAHAM LINCOLN.) Order for postal clerks to guard the Postmaster General's house shortly after the assassination. One manuscript page, 8 x 5 inches, plus integral blank with docketing, on Post Office Department letterhead, signed by George W. McLellan as 2nd Assistant Postmaster; [Washington], 22 April 1865

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In the wake of the assassination plot, which had targeted the Vice President and Secretary of State as well as the President, the other cabinet members were probably a bit spooked. This official Post Office Department order provides for a detail of 7 men in a "detail for guard duty at the residence of the Postmaster General . . . to be in charge of Mr. Meigs." The docketing explains that this was a "detail of clerks of P.O. Dept as guard for P.M. General Dennison's house . . . Such a guard or a military one was posted at each one of the Sec's house after the assassination."

The guard was successful; Postmaster William Dennison survived until leaving office the following year.