CIVIL WAR ANTE BELLUM CONGRESSMAN MASS PRESIDENT LINCOLN FRIEND LETTER SIGNED 46

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CIVIL WAR ANTE BELLUM CONGRESSMAN MASS PRESIDENT LINCOLN FRIEND LETTER SIGNED 46:
$39.99

GEORGE ASHMUN

(1804 – 1870)

CIVIL WAR Ante bellum CONGRESSMANfrom MASSACHUSETTS

FRIEND and POLITICALSUPPORTER of PRESIDENT LINCOLN

President of the Chicago Convention that NominatedPresident Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States. Ashmun wasprimarily important to the Election of Lincoln as President! Ashmunmet with Lincoln on the morning of April 15 hours prior to his Assassination!

HERE’S AN AUTOGRAPH LETTERSIGNED by ASHMUN on the integral leaf of a stampless free frank letter coveralso signed by Ashmun! This 2pp. ALS isdated April 7, 1846 and addressed to S[tephen]. C. Bemis, Esq. of Springfield,Massachusetts [Bemis became the Civil War Mayor of Springfield, MA, and was anoted American tool manufacturer]. In thisletter, Ashmun discusses inquiries made by Bemis at the US Patent Office…andthe Springfield Armory…

The address leaf bearsa \'FREE\' Washington D. C. circular date stamp postmark and free frank signatureof Ashmun.

The document measures 8” x 10” and isin VERY GOOD CONDITION. NOTE: THEBIOGRAPHY PICTURED IN THE LISTING IS INCLUDED WITH THE LETTER.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of the Honorable

GEORGE ASHMUN

George Ashmun was a Congressman from Massachusetts (Whig, 1845-51) whoserved with Abraham Lincoln in Congress and took a similar anti-war stanceagainst President James Polk. Ashmun was president of the Republican NationalConvention in Chicago in 1860 and led a delegation of Republicans toSpringfield to meet with the nominee after the convention.Ashmun visited Senator Stephen Douglas shortly after Douglas met with PresidentLincoln on April 15, 1861 about the outbreak of the Civil War. He is the sourceof information about their conversation in which the Illinois Democrat pledgedhis support for the war policies of his long-time Republican rival.Ashmun also met with President Lincoln at the White House shortly before hewent to Ford\'s Theater on night of assassination. According to Thomas Pendel:\"On the fourteenth day of April 1865, in the evening, just previous to thetime when the President and Mrs. Lincoln were going to the theatre, George Ashmunof Massachusetts, called on Mrs. Lincoln, and I showed him into the Red Parlor,took his card upstairs, and soon the President and Mrs. Lincoln, with Mr.Colfax, then Speaker of the House, came downstairs and went into the Red Parlorwhere Mr. Ashmun was waiting. The all entered into a lively local conversation,and came out of the Red Parlor presently, and stood in the inner corridor.Their conversation was about the trip Mr. Colfax proposed to take across thecontinent. They then passed out of the corridor into the main vestibule, andstood in the main entrance, where they again chatted. Mr. Colfax bade thePresident and Mrs. Lincoln good evening, and went upstairs to see the PrivateSecretary, Mr. John G. Nicolay. Mr. Ashmun went out on the portico with thePresident and Mrs. Lincoln, said good-bye, and started off downtown. Ned Burkeand Charles Forbes, the coachman and footman, respectively, drove over to aprivate residence, and took in a coach Major Rathbone and Miss [Clara] Harris,who was the daughter of Senator Ira Harris of New York.\"On February 6, 1864, Ashmun was attempting to arrange for permits to trade incotton along the Mississippi. He was being thwarted by the Treasury Department.He wrote General Nathaniel Banks that there \"can be no doubt but that[Salmon P. Chase] is desparately [sic] bent on supplanting the President. Allthe signs, external & internal, prove this; but Mr. L. is as fullydetermined to hold on, & I do not see any possibility of the success of acombination against him. I have had but little conversation with him directlyon the subject, but Mrs. L. keeps me thoroughly informed of everything, - &you may rely upon the existence of the ripest state of inflammation between Mr.L. and Mr. C. This very matter of the granting of permits by Mr. C to bringcotton into our lines, in contravention of his own published regulations, mayprove the spark for an explosion at any moment. It only needs to get the proofsthat he has done so; & they are likely to be forthcoming in due season.\"Ashmun later served as a director of the Union Pacific Railroad.

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