Two handwritten letters from Varina Davis—an ALS signed “Varina Davis,” and a partial ALS signed “V. Davis,” five total pages, 5.25 x 8.25 and 5 x 7.75, no date. The ALS, addressed to her “dear friend,” in part: “If it were possible to make your agency clearer in bringing me nearer to God, you will be so remembered, and it is a great happiness to me to know that the person I most revere on earth has given to me these precious volumes to insure our continued friendship in Heaven.” The partial ALS, the conclusion of an apparent 8-page letter, in part: “The Kansas and Utah question seems to fill everybody’s mind, excepting those who desire to serve their country in the new Regiment and those who assert they have served an ungrateful country on the high seas. I see no one who does not seem to feel anxious about our territorial affairs—and whenever the conversations arise, Mr. Davis takes pains to assure the speaker be he who he may, that the Dreadful Doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty had shaded and protected the ignorant…free State emigrant aid societies feebly controlled by U.S. dragons…The Cabinet?!! Of that we had attained the perfection which would make goodness the only requisite…My successor Mrs. Floyd [John Floyd succeeded Davis as Secretary of War] is a lovely old Virginia lady, gentle in blood and manner—Mrs. Cobb [Georgian Howell Cobb, Buchanan’s Secretary of the Treasury] is an old and valued friend…My children are lovely this winter. Jeffie [son Jefferson Davis Jr. was born January 16, 1857] is large and fleshy, but like his Father. Maggie [daughter Margaret born February 25, 1855] is very willful but pretty, and bright—but my boy is my darling.” In overall fine condition.
