April 11-13, 2023 Firearms and Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/13/2023
June 25, 1862 letter on Census Office stationery to Lincoln from Commissioner Joseph C.G. Kennedy recommending Malcolm Seaton for a position in the registry of wills and docketed by Lincoln on the reverse. Seaton was married and his health had been “impaired by his services through a series of 7 years in the coast survey, by the southern climate.” Kennedy (1813-1887) was appointed by Zachary Taylor as Secretary of the Census Board, superintended the census 1850, the first to attempt to name and count every member of a household and to produce a “Slave Schedule,” enumerating the enslaved by gender, age, and owner, and the 1860 census, data from which purportedly aided in the creation of military maps in the Civil War. He was close enough to Lincoln to accompany him on a visit to the Antietam battlefield in early October 1862 and was photographed by Gardner with Lincoln at McClellan’s headquarters. The Library of Congress identifies him as second from right in our cropped version, with Lincoln at left and McClellan in the center. The letter was from the renowned Dr. John K. Lattimer Collection and is accompanied by a James Spence Authentication Full Letter of Authenticity. CONDITION: Very good with areas of smudging, edge wear, and scattered blemishes typical of old paper.
Item Dimensions: 11" X 8 - 1/2"