?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON: "PUBLIC CONSIDERATIONS . . . CONSTRAIN ME NOT TO RESIGN" (CIVIL WAR.) STANTON, EDWIN M. Two letters Signed, as Secretary of War: LS, to Alexander K. McClure * ALS, to President Andrew Johnson. The first, "EdwinM S," complaining of General Meade's performance at the Battle of Williamsport and pledging to support his newspaper. The second, likely a retained draft, declining the President's invitation to resign his post. Each 1 page, 4to, "War Department" stationery, ruled paper; moderate scattered staining affecting signature and text, horizontal folds; each in double-sided frame. (SFC) Washington, 22 July 1863; 5 August 1867
22 July 1863: ". . . As long as General Meade remains in command, he will receive the cordial support of the Department, but since the world began, no man ever missed so great an opportunity of serving his country, as was lost by his neglecting to strike his adversary at Williamsport. . . ." 5 August 1867, in full: "Your note of this date has been received stating that Public Considerations of a high character constrain you to say that my resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted. "In reply I have the honor to say that public considerations of a high character, which alone have induced me for a considerable period to continue in this Department, constrain me not to resign the office of Secretary of War before the next meeting of Congress." The first article of impeachment against President Johnson claimed that Johnson's attempt to dismiss Stanton was contrary to law. According to the Supplement to the Congressional Globe Containing the Proceedings of the Senate Sitting for The Trial of Andrew Johnson (Washington, 1868), the text of Stanton's reply to the President's note that his resignation "will be accepted" was identical to the text in the present letter, except that the phrase beginning "which alone have induced me" concluded "to continue at the head of this Department." With--Two ALsS, each to Stanton: Theodore D. Woolsey • O.P. Morton. The first, announcing that Yale College had conferred upon Stanton the degree of Doctor of Laws. The second, reporting that the Senate just resolved that the president's attempt to remove him from office violated law and the Constitution. Together 3 pages, 8vo; each in double-sided frame. New Haven, 21 July 1867; Washington, circa 21 February 1868.
