LINCOLN (ABRAHAM)


Signature ("A. Lincoln"), written as President, with autograph subscription: "C.F. Adams/ American Legation/ London.", 1 page, pasted onto an album leaf, together with an autograph letter by Adams (dated from London, 2 May 1863), and other letters, very light dust-staining, trimmed to 78 x 70mm., undated [?April 1863]
|THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE CAUSES CHAMPIONED IN LONDON. Charles Frederick Adams, to whom Lincoln is writing, was US Minister to the Court of St James's from 20 March 1861 to 13 May 1868 and did much to prevent Britain siding with the Confederacy. He was son and grandson of two presidents, and father of the memoirist Henry Adams. His letter mounted on the same album leaf as Lincoln's signature sends his compliments to the album's owner, John Coubrough, and was presumably sent with Lincoln's signature.Also mounted on the album page is a letter by the great oceanographer M.F. Maury, written after he had handed in his US naval commission and entered the service of the Confederacy, first as designer of torpedoes and then as an agent propagating their cause abroad. It is written from his apartment at 10 Sackville Street, London, on 31 December 1862, a month after his arrival in England; and contains the ringing declaration: "No one can tell when peace is to come, but it is approaching rapidly & I hope it will come at an early day".