Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 7 x 10, August 25, 1862. President Lincoln authorizes and directs "the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to a Warrant for the pardon of Andrew Jones." Boldly and neatly signed at the conclusion by President Lincoln. In very good condition, with trimmed edges, creasing, toning, and show-through from old clear tape on the reverse; none of the flaws affect the bold signature. According to the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, the president had received a petition signed by citizens of Washington, D.C., asking for the pardon of 'Andrew Jones, a very respectable and worthy Colored man…convicted on the 25th day of July, 1862…on the charge of assaulting and resisting a Police Officer.' The petition reviewed evidence that the police officer attacked Jones and demonstrated that the arrest was unwarranted. On August 23, 1862, Lincoln directed Attorney General Edward Bates to let Jones be pardoned as to the remainder of his sentence, and two days later signed this warrant for said pardon. President Lincoln signed this significant document just one month before the Union's victory at Antietam, which gave him the political confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862. In that historic document, he proclaimed that on January 1, 1863, 'all persons held as slaves…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.' Pertaining to the injustices suffered by a Black man at the hands of the police and the courts, signed at a time when Abraham Lincoln was considering emancipation, this document carries tremendous historical meaning and remains relevant in today's America.
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