Lincoln, Abraham, as sixteenth President

Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), 2 pages (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 248 x 197 mm) on 2 sheets of blue-ruled wove paper, [Washington, D.C., ca. 2 May 1864], to the House of Representatives, being a transcription of his 2 November 1863 letter to Montgomery Blair; first page lightly browned and with some ink smudges, both pages with two filing-holes punched in the upper left margins and with tiny adhesive stains on versos. Half black morocco slipcase, gray morocco spine labels.

Roy P. Crocker (Sotheby's, 28 November 1979, lot 202)

cf. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Basler, 7:326–2, for chronological position of the present letter; cf. Basler 6:554–55, for the text of Lincoln's original letter to Blair (in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). 

Lincoln offers fraternal advice to Frank Blair, brother of his Postmaster General: "aid to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the Government in the war."

Francis Preston ("Frank") Blair was a Missouri lawyer who organized, in 1848, the Free Soil party to oppose that state's very strong pro-slavery sentiment. As both an occasional United States congressman (he was first elected to the House in 1856) and as an officer of Union volunteers, Blair was instrumental in saving Missouri for the Union. In an effort to balance his competing political and military ambitions, he asked the president, through his brother Montgomery Blair, if Lincoln would prefer that he remain on the battlefield or return to the House of Representatives, to which he had once more been elected.

Lincoln responded with the unusually frank letter transcribed here, in which he made Frank Blair a highly unusual offer: "Some days ago I understood you to say that your brother, General Frank Blair desires to be guided by my wishes as to whether he will occupy his seat in Congress, or remain in the field. My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the country, and best for him. And it is, that he will come here, put his Military Commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the Government in the war. If the result shall be the election of himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position; if not, let him retake his Commission, and return to the Army. For the country this will heal a dangerous schism; for him it will relieve from a dangerous position. By a misunderstanding, as I think, he is in danger of being permanently separated from those with whom only he can ever have a real sympathy—the sincere opponents of slavery. It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him by insincere time servers, to drive him from the house of his own building. He is young yet. He has abundant talent—quite enough to occupy all his time, without devoting any to temper. He is rising in Military skill and usefulness. His recent appointment to the command of a corps by one so competent to judge as Gen. Sherman proves this. In that line he can serve both the country and himself more profitably than he could as a Member of Congress upon the floor. The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair were my brother instead of yours."

Frank Blair did as Lincoln suggested and took his seat in the thirty-eighth congress. He was not elected speaker, however, and he soon grew frustrated with the partisan tone of the House. In mid-April 1864, Blair asked Lincoln to reactivate his military commission, and on 23 April Lincoln wrote to Edwin Stanton about his "understanding" with Blair and directed that the Secretary of War withdraw his resignation as Major General and return him to the field."

This unorthodox move caught the attention of Democrats in Congress, who demanded that the executive branch furnish them with all documents relating to the case. Lincoln complied on 2 May, and the present letter to the House of Representative was part of that filing. The text of the letter transcription is headed by Lincoln "To the Honorable the House of Representatives. In compliance with the request contained in your Resolution of the 29th. ult. and a copy of which Resolution is herewith returned, I have the honor to transmit the following:"