Important and revealing ALS signed “U. S. Grant,” seven pages on four lightly lined sheets, 4.25 x 6.75, April 24, 1881. Grant writes from Mexico City (where he was visiting in his role as railroad executive) to Nevada Senator J. P. Jones. In part: “I see by the latest dispatches received here from the capital of the [inserted: “our”] country that the deadlock in organizing the Senate is not yet broken, and that nothing has been done by the President to allay the bitterness which must be engendered by his most recent appointments. When the first batch of appointments for New York, and one from my own state, was sent in I was delighted. I believed then the President had determined to recognize the Republican party and not a faction. But his appointments of the next day convinced me that the first act was but a part of a deep laid scheme—by somebody—to punish prominent leaders or their audacity in being openly friendly to me. I cannot credit the belief that Gen. Garfield is the author of this policy. I give him credit for being too big a man to descend to such means for the punishment of men who gave him a hearty support in his election and are disposed to give him the same support now—for the mere offence of having had a firmer preference for someone else for the office which he now holds. But Garfield is President and is responsible for all the acts of the administration. Conkling & Platt are the chosen senators from the great state of New York, and that too against all the opposition of an Administration elected by the same party that chose them. This should give them a stronger claim to be consulted in the matter of appointments in their state. When it comes to the appointment of the most influential office within the gift of the President outside of his cabinet, and one within their state, without consulting them it is a great slight. When he selects the most offensive man to be found, it becomes an insult and ought to be resented to the bitter end. I sincerely hope the President will see this and correct his mistake himself, and restore harmony to the party. He owes this to himself and to those without whom he could not have been elected. Nobody believes that he could have carried the state of New York without the active support of her present senators.... Without the State of New York Gen. Garfield would not now be President. His rewarding Robertson is not only offensive to the New York senators but it is offensive to the New York Republicans....” Following his stunningly narrow victory in the 1880 election—his margin of the popular vote was 1,898, the smallest in American history—Garfield took office on March 4, 1881, less than two months before Grant penned the present letter. Grant’s clearly ambiguous support of Garfield was no doubt colored by his own failure to secure the Republican nomination in the previous year. After the incumbent president, Rutherford B. Hayes, declared he would not seek reelection, Grant, who had occupied the Executive Mansion from 1869 to 1877, openly sought nomination for a third term. Though he went into the Republican Convention in June 1880 as the front runner, the split of votes among opposing factions thwarted his efforts. Garfield, who had not even been considered a candidate and who himself supported fellow Ohioan John Sherman, found himself the benefactor of a groundswell that put him over the top on the 36th ballot, easily besting Grant. The “offensive” matter Grant refers to was the appointment of William H. Robertson (1823–1898) as Collector of the Port of New York. Robertson, an elector and former congressman, had been instrumental in swaying the support of a crucial New York vote bloc from Grant to Garfield at the convention. Robertson’s nomination to the post by Garfield without input from New York Senators Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt, evidently in violation of a pledge Garfield had made, resulted in a serious party schism and the resignation of the two senators. A hint of mild handling wear and soiling (a few minor ink spots), and scattered light staining to one page (slightly affecting legibility of a few words), otherwise fine condition. A remarkable letter of first historic significance! Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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