Lincoln, Abraham, as sixteenth President

Lincoln: 1 page (9 3/4 x 7 5/8 in.; 248 x 195 mm) on a sheet of blue-ruled paper, "Executive Mansion, Washington," 7 February 1865; very light browning, neatly silked. Grant: 1 page (7 1/4 x 7 5/8 in.; 183 x 195 mm) trimmed down from a sheet of Head Quarters Armies of the United States letterhead, "City Point, Va.," 25 February 1865; blank lower third of sheet cut away, neatly silked closing fold separation.

Descended in the family of Ulysses S. Grant

Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Basler, 8:267 (text from the draft, mostly not autograph, in the Robert Todd Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress; The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. Simon, 14:114 note (text from the recipient's copy, Berkshire Museum, with many differences in incidentals and the substitution of "Military" for "United States"); David D. Surdam, “Traders or Traitors: Northen Cotton Trading during the Civil War,” in Business and Economic History 28 (1999): 301-312

Lincoln: 1 page (9 3/4 x 7 5/8 in.; 248 x 195 mm) on a sheet of blue-ruled paper, "Executive Mansion, Washington," 7 February 1865; very light browning, neatly silked. Grant: 1 page (7 1/4 x 7 5/8 in.; 183 x 195 mm) trimmed down from a sheet of Head Quarters Armies of the United States letterhead, "City Point, Va.," 25 February 1865; blank lower third of sheet cut away, neatly silked closing fold separation.
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For a variety of reasons, sometimes contradictory, the Lincoln administration sanctioned some trade with the Confederacy during the Civil War: cotton came north and staple provisions went south. Perhaps the overriding reason for this was to keep the European powers out of the conflict by ensuring the American cotton was still available to them. The policy was extremely controversial, with an 1864 congressional investigation concluding that this trade “induced a spirit of speculation and plunder among the people, who have entered into a disgraceful scramble for wealth during a time of war, waged to save the life of the nation. … It is believed to have led to the prolongation of the war, and to have cost the country thousands of lives and millions upon millions of treasure” (quoted in Surdam). Despite heated opposition, Lincoln continued the policy as his letter to Grant, who was commanding the Army of the Potomac in winter siege lines near Richmond, makes clear. 

"General Singleton who bears you this claims that he already has arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount of Southern produce through your lines. For it's bearing on our finances I would be glad for this to be done if it can be without injuriously disturbing your military operations, or supplying the enemy. I wish you to be judge and Master on these points. Please see and hear him fully and decide whether anything, and if anything, what can be done in the premises."

James W. Singleton was a lawyer and speculator who was commissioned a Brigadier General of Militia during Missouri Mormon War. He joined with Orville H. Browning, James Hughes, Robert E. Coxe, and Senator Edwin D. Morgan to ship Southern produce to the north, with the sanction of President Lincoln. Grant was less sanguine about the trade policy than his commander in chief, and nearly three weeks after he received Lincoln’s letter, Grant wrote a terse missive to Singleton: "Such Southern products as may be sent to Fredericksburg, Va. consigned to you, I will give directions to leave unmolested by United States forces from injury or capture so long as it remains there, or is in process of removal North, if done with authority of the Military Commander of the Dept. of Washington and under Treasury regulations."

Two further weeks exhausted Grant’s patience and he sent a confidential telegram, 8 March 1865, to Secretary of War Stanton: “I believe Gen. Singleton should be ordered to return from Richmond and all permits he may have should be revoked. Our friends in Richmond … sent word that tobacco is being exchanged on the Potomac for bacon and they believed Singleton to be at the bottom of it. … [I]n the case of Singleton … I believe there is a deep laid plan for making millions and [he] will sacrifice every interest of the country to succeed” (Papers 14:113). Lincoln, recalling that his letter to Grant included the phrase “if you consent,” replied the same day that Singleton was “not in Richmond on any authority, unless it be from you,” and authorized Grant “to suspend all operations on the Treasury-trade-permits.”