

Petition, three individual pages joined to form single page (7 1/4 x 33 1/4 in.; 190 x 845 mm). Addressed: "To his Excellency Andrew Johnson President of the United States. We the undersigned members of the Medical Profession of the District of Columbia, respectfully and earnestly request of your Excellency that the disabilities existing in regard to the return of the Doctor Cornelius Boyle, one of our former associates, be removed, or so modified that he may return to the practice of his profession in this community." The petition is then signed by some 52 physicians.
At least four of the signatories to the petition directed to President Johnson (see below) attended President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre or the Petersen House after he was shot by John Wilkes Booth: Albert F. King, Charles H. L. Liebermann, Charles M. Ford,, and Jame C. Hall. Other notable petioners include Dr. Alexander Y. P. Garnett, physician to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Biographical notices of many of the signers can be found in History of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C., 1909).