Seven-line handwritten endorsement, signed “A. Lincoln” and dated May 5, 1862, on the center panel of the integral leaf of an ALS sent to him by Senator James Harlan, one page, 7.5 x 9.5, illustrated Thirty-Seventh Congress letterhead, May 2, 1862. Harlan’s letter reads, in part: “I have formed the acquaintance of Mr. Asa Holt. Jr... during the present session of Congress: and from this acquaintance and the representations of others I take pleasure in recommending him to the favorable consideration of the President. I understand that Mr. Asa Holt, Jr. is a relative and friend of Hon. J. Holt, in whose wellfare [sic] the latter feels a deep interest. I therefore hope it may be found practicable to give him some suitable position....” Lincoln’s endorsement reads, in full: “If Hon. Joseph Holt will say in writing he desires it, let Mr. Asa Holt Jr. be appointed to the first Pay-Mastership of volunteers, not already promised to any other.” Below Lincoln’s endorsement, Joseph Holt has added his assent per Lincoln’s request; at the bottom, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton has penned and signed a statement referring the recommendation to the adjutant general “for execution.” The writer of the original letter, James Harlan (1820–1899) served as a senator from 1855 to 1865, at which time he resigned to become Secretary of the Interior in the Johnson administration. After a brief tenure, which included the firing of Walt Whitman as a clerk over “moral” objections to Whitman’s iconic poetry volume Leaves of Grass, Harlan resigned over disagreements with Johnson’s policies and returned to the Senate. In 1868, his daughter, Mary Eunice Harlan, married Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. A touch of light toning along mailing folds and docketing notations lightly touching a few words of Lincoln’s text, and light brushing to Stanton’s endorsement and signature, otherwise fine, clean condition. Lincoln’s writing is bold and clear. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
