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Lot Essay
Lincoln offers thanks for two presentation canes on the same day: one made from the triumphal arch erected for Washington and the other from the Merrimack.
A series of three letters written by a president eager to express appreciation for but simultaneously overwhelmed by the myriad gifts offered by supporters—in this case, a pair of canes. The first cane, presented by the Loyal Ladies of Trenton during the President's visit to the sanitary fair in Philadelphia on 16 June 1864, was fashioned from a triumphal arch erected for George Washington's passage to his 1789 inauguration. He writes, "At the Philadelphia Fair about the middle of last month a very pretty cane, with hallowed associations, was presented to me, on your behalf by a worthy Revered gentleman whose name I regret to say I can not now remember. Please accept my sincere thanks, which, in my duties, I have not found time to tender sooner." The "Revered gentleman" in question was C C. Hale, who was just three years old during the Battle of Trenton on 26 January 1776 (The Press, Philadelphia, 17 June 1864, p.2). The same day, Lincoln wrote to Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania requesting assistance in learning the name of the man who had sent him a different cane, asking him to forward the last letter in this lot to "the gentleman who sent me a cane through your hands. For my life I can not make out his name; and therefore I cut it from his letter and pasted it on," in the manuscript letter, the name of the addressee is unmistakably pasted at the left above the letter body. William O. Snider (or Snyder), the recipient of the letter sent via Governor Curtin, had sent along a cane he had described as "made from a fragment of wood taken from the hulk of the rebel iron clad Merrimack" (William O. Snider to Andrew G. Curtin, 6 April 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress). Lincoln offered his thanks to Snider for "the cane you did me the honor to present through Gov. Curtin".
A series of three letters written by a president eager to express appreciation for but simultaneously overwhelmed by the myriad gifts offered by supporters—in this case, a pair of canes. The first cane, presented by the Loyal Ladies of Trenton during the President's visit to the sanitary fair in Philadelphia on 16 June 1864, was fashioned from a triumphal arch erected for George Washington's passage to his 1789 inauguration. He writes, "At the Philadelphia Fair about the middle of last month a very pretty cane, with hallowed associations, was presented to me, on your behalf by a worthy Revered gentleman whose name I regret to say I can not now remember. Please accept my sincere thanks, which, in my duties, I have not found time to tender sooner." The "Revered gentleman" in question was C C. Hale, who was just three years old during the Battle of Trenton on 26 January 1776 (The Press, Philadelphia, 17 June 1864, p.2). The same day, Lincoln wrote to Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania requesting assistance in learning the name of the man who had sent him a different cane, asking him to forward the last letter in this lot to "the gentleman who sent me a cane through your hands. For my life I can not make out his name; and therefore I cut it from his letter and pasted it on," in the manuscript letter, the name of the addressee is unmistakably pasted at the left above the letter body. William O. Snider (or Snyder), the recipient of the letter sent via Governor Curtin, had sent along a cane he had described as "made from a fragment of wood taken from the hulk of the rebel iron clad Merrimack" (William O. Snider to Andrew G. Curtin, 6 April 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress). Lincoln offered his thanks to Snider for "the cane you did me the honor to present through Gov. Curtin".