March 15-17, 2022 Collectible Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2022
Historic gavel used in the Congress of the Confederate States of America, retrieved in Richmond April 1865 by Senator Charles Sumner. From the Dr. John K. Lattimer collection. This bears a wonderful, period brown ink label reading: "Gavel of the Confederate Congress," and was mentioned by Lincoln himself to visitors at the White House the night of his death in a conversation reported as early as April 17, 1865. By Lincoln's own account it was obtained by Senator Charles Sumner during his visit to Richmond, which occurred in company with Mary Todd Lincoln and several congressmen on April 6, 1865. The party had originally planned to meet Lincoln at City Point, but then continued on to Richmond, where they met with Gen. Weitzel, as had Lincoln himself 2 days earlier, and briefly toured the ruined city, stopping at the State Capitol, which had been used by the Confederate Congress. Souvenir hunting was rampant and those touring the building with Lincoln 2 days earlier mentioned the looting. A member of Sumner's and Mary Lincoln's party reported, "Words cannot describe the condition of the rooms occupied by the Confederate Congress. What dirt and confusion have accumulated there!" Lincoln himself mentioned the gavel to Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax and Massachusetts Congressman George Ashmun in perhaps his last recorded conversation at about 8:00 P.M. on the night of April 14, 1865, just before leaving the White House for Ford's Theatre. Lincoln said to Colfax, "Mr. Sumner has the gavel of the Confederate Congress, which he got at Richmond to hand to the Secretary of War, but I insisted then that he give it to you; tell him for me to hand it over." We quote directly from an April 17, 1865, issue of the Boston Daily Evening Traveller, an original copy of which is included in the lot. This account and quote is repeated in the 1867 dated Six Months in the White House, by Carpenter, pages 284 to 287, a copy of which is also included. This is not to be confused with souvenir gavels created as mementos using wood from historic buildings, etc. This is the actual gavel used in the Confederate Congress and retrieved by Sumner. Its symbolic value was recognized at the time by Lincoln, Colfax, and Congressman Ashmun who, in the same conversation with Lincoln, referred to his own preservation of a gavel he had used at the Chicago Convention of 1860, which had nominated Lincoln for President of the United States. It is thus a telling memento of the 4-year failed effort to destroy that Union by legislating into existence a separate nation and a fitting souvenir to be taken by the Senator symbolizing an end to that attempt. It is unclear if the gavel remained in Sumner's hands, passed to Stanton, or to Colfax as Lincoln desired. The Lattimer collection included material from the Stanton estate, so it is possible the Secretary of War ended up with it after all, but Lattimer was a determined and wide-ranging collector, so it may have come from the Sumner or Colfax family as well. CONDITION: Excellent, showing some expected wear to its original deep, bluish-green paint. Glued label is fully legible. Accompanied by an original copy of the 1865 Boston newspaper and 1867 book referring to it.
Item Dimensions: 16" X 13"