Details
LINCOLN, MARY, First Lady. Autograph letter signed ("Mrs. A. Lincoln") as First Lady, to Quarter Master General Montgomery C. Meigs, "Executive Mansion" [Washington, D.C.], n.d. [docketed on verso "Received May 3rd. 1862"]. 2 pages, 12mo, written on pages 1 and 3 of a four-page sheet of black-bordered mourning stationery, crest with initial "L" at top of page one, page four docketed.
IN MOURNING FOR "WILLIE" LINCOLN, MARY RECOMMENDS TWO MERCHANTS, FRIENDS OF "THE PRESIDENT & MYSELF"
"Dear Sir, Our personal friends, Col. Sweeney & Mr. Gilbert, in whom both the President & myself feel much interested, are desirous of obtaining a contract, in your department. Any favor extended to these gentlemen, will be highly appreciated by us, as we know, they are worthy of any request they may ask, at your hands. Trusting, you may feel disposed to act favorably towards them, I remain...."
The letter apparently refers to Col. Thomas W. Sweney (Mary and the President both spelled it with an extra "e"), Assessor of Internal Revenue at Philadelphia, who somehow became "a particular friend of young 'Tad' Lincoln and purveyed to him playthings of various sorts" (see Basler 6:521n.) and who accompanied Mrs. Lincoln and Tad on horseback rides in Washington (see Turner & Turner, p.149-150). The identity of Sweney's business associate, Mr. Gilbert, and the precise nature of the contract they proposed to obtain from the Quartermaster are unclear. Col. Sweney had commanded the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry but resigned on 24 January 1862. In a letter of 22 March 1862, to John C. Fremont, Lincoln recommended Sweeney as "my friend...who has already done some service with volunteers, and is a gentleman of great intelligence and good principles" (Basler 5:168). Mary Lincoln's use of mourning stationery is due to the recent death, on 20 February, of William "Willie" Lincoln, the only child of a President to die in the White House.
Apparently unpublished, not in Mary Todd Lincoln: Life and Letters, ed. J.G. and L.L. Turner.
IN MOURNING FOR "WILLIE" LINCOLN, MARY RECOMMENDS TWO MERCHANTS, FRIENDS OF "THE PRESIDENT & MYSELF"
"Dear Sir, Our personal friends, Col. Sweeney & Mr. Gilbert, in whom both the President & myself feel much interested, are desirous of obtaining a contract, in your department. Any favor extended to these gentlemen, will be highly appreciated by us, as we know, they are worthy of any request they may ask, at your hands. Trusting, you may feel disposed to act favorably towards them, I remain...."
The letter apparently refers to Col. Thomas W. Sweney (Mary and the President both spelled it with an extra "e"), Assessor of Internal Revenue at Philadelphia, who somehow became "a particular friend of young 'Tad' Lincoln and purveyed to him playthings of various sorts" (see Basler 6:521n.) and who accompanied Mrs. Lincoln and Tad on horseback rides in Washington (see Turner & Turner, p.149-150). The identity of Sweney's business associate, Mr. Gilbert, and the precise nature of the contract they proposed to obtain from the Quartermaster are unclear. Col. Sweney had commanded the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry but resigned on 24 January 1862. In a letter of 22 March 1862, to John C. Fremont, Lincoln recommended Sweeney as "my friend...who has already done some service with volunteers, and is a gentleman of great intelligence and good principles" (Basler 5:168). Mary Lincoln's use of mourning stationery is due to the recent death, on 20 February, of William "Willie" Lincoln, the only child of a President to die in the White House.
Apparently unpublished, not in Mary Todd Lincoln: Life and Letters, ed. J.G. and L.L. Turner.