(Lincoln, Mary Todd, First Lady)

A small archive of correspondence from and to Simon Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War, regarding his efforts to raise $20,000 through a subscription fund in order to purchase a home for the widowed Mary Todd Lincoln and her sons; comprising 8 letters, various dates and sizes.

The earliest item in the archive is a manuscript circular letter signed by Cameron, 3 April 1866, directed to Jay Cooke, explaining that he "is in possession of confidential information from the highest source, that the family of our late President is now suffering from painful pecuniary embarrassments. ... The object I have in view, is to raise $20,000, and procure them a Home." Cameron pledges $1,000 personally and announce that he is confidentially approaching for contributions a few others who will agree "that this contribution to the comfort of his family, is better than giving money to raise costly monuments over one whose Fame will endure when monuments are become dust."

Cooke's two responses show little sympathy with the scheme. The first, 5 April 1866, opines that Mrs. Lincoln's position is not nearly so desperate as Cameron supposes and she had sufficient means "for any moderate expenditures." The second, 7 April 1866, encloses a copy of a letter "from our cashier Mr. Huntington," which claims that the estate of the late President is worth $87,000, which would generate some $5,000 in annual interest; in addition to which Mrs. Lincoln has about $23,000 belonging to herself individually. Huntington adds, perhaps gratuitously, that "Judge Davis has talked to me very freely about her, finding much fault with her, and says that her son Robt. deprecates her course most decidedly."

A letter from Thomas Beaver, 6 April 1866, pledges $500, since his funds for the year have been nearly exhausted by contributions to Lafayette and Dickinson Colleges. J. Edgar Thompson of the Pennsylvania Rail Road explains in a 7 April April letter that he is unable to contribute because he has emptied his pockets trying to help his "old friends at the South, who were steadfast to the Union as long as it was safe to hang to it." Charles Knoff pledges $1,000 in a letter of 8 April, while the personal situation of James Park Jr. makes it impossible for him to participate, as he explains in letter to Cameron of 12 April.