![LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph note signed ("A. Lincoln"), as President, to unknown secretary, [Washington], 26 January 1864. 1 page, oblong (3¼ x 3¼ in.), mounted.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/NYR/2006_NYR_01720_0079_000(010312).jpg?w=1)
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LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph note signed ("A. Lincoln"), as President, to unknown secretary, [Washington], 26 January 1864. 1 page, oblong (3¼ x 3¼ in.), mounted.
LINCOLN CLEARS HIS DESK: "I find this bundle of old papers upon my table," he writes, "& can not remember for what object they were left. Please file them." Evidently addressed to one of his secretaries, the two principal ones were John Nicolay and his assistant John Hay. When the crush of work became too great they took on another assistant, William O. Stoddard, a clerk from the Interior Department (still another Interior Department clerk, Edward D. Neill, sometimes filled in for Stoddard). Stoddard and Neill weeded out the crank letters and answered routine correspondence not needing a presidential signature. Nicolay and Hay handled important letters and managed the President's appointments. As this note suggests, Lincoln was not overly fastidious about office procedures. Throughout the war he let his time be taken up with the most mundane sorts of petitions and complaints from ordinary citizens. "Remarkably," biographer David H. Donald writes, "the President's systematic lack of system seemed to work. Stories of his accessibility to even the humblest petitioner, his patience, and his humanity, spread throughout the North" (Lincoln, 311).
LINCOLN CLEARS HIS DESK: "I find this bundle of old papers upon my table," he writes, "& can not remember for what object they were left. Please file them." Evidently addressed to one of his secretaries, the two principal ones were John Nicolay and his assistant John Hay. When the crush of work became too great they took on another assistant, William O. Stoddard, a clerk from the Interior Department (still another Interior Department clerk, Edward D. Neill, sometimes filled in for Stoddard). Stoddard and Neill weeded out the crank letters and answered routine correspondence not needing a presidential signature. Nicolay and Hay handled important letters and managed the President's appointments. As this note suggests, Lincoln was not overly fastidious about office procedures. Throughout the war he let his time be taken up with the most mundane sorts of petitions and complaints from ordinary citizens. "Remarkably," biographer David H. Donald writes, "the President's systematic lack of system seemed to work. Stories of his accessibility to even the humblest petitioner, his patience, and his humanity, spread throughout the North" (Lincoln, 311).