ULYSSES S. GRANT | President Grant invites Senator George Vickers of Maryland to attend an extraordinary session of the Senate

ULYSSES S. GRANT

LETTER SIGNED ("U. S. GRANT") AS EIGHTEENTH-PRESIDENT, ASKING GEORGE VICKERS TO ATTEND A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE SENATE

Engraved circular letter, one page (9 7/8 x 8 in.; 252 x 202 mm), accomplished in a neat clerical hand, Washington, 8 April 1869; short fold separations, repaired with some discoloration. 

Ulysses Grant was inaugurated as President on 4 March 1869, but, distracted by the crush of patronage seekers, he was very slow to fill various diplomatic and administrative posts. Finally on 8 April he issued a proclamation convening an extra session of the United States Senate "at 12 o'clock on the 12th day of April, 1869, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive." 

That same day, personalized, but otherwise identical, invitations to the session were sent by the President to each of the sitting Senators, the present example going to George Vickers, perhaps best remembered for casting cast the deciding vote against the impeachment of President Johnson. "Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate should be in session on the 12th instant, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your attendance in the Senate Chamber in this City, on that day, at 12 o'clock noon, is accordingly requested."

Grant called the special session so that the Senate could consider his many proposed appointments to government posts, including foreign ministers, federal judges, marshals, district attorneys, surveyors, tax assessors, and postmasters. Among the significant foreign postings offered for advice and consent were J. Lothrop Motley for Great Britain, John Jay for Austria-Hungary, and Andrew Curtin for Russia; all were confirmed. Also notable were Grant's nominations of African Americans as Ministers to Liberia, Guatemala, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic. When Ebenezer Bassett was confirmed for the last listed post, he became the first African American to serve as a U.S. diplomat anywhere in the world.