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Lincoln Signs for Connected Soldier Who Grant Reinstates
Lincoln Signs for Connected Soldier Who Grant Reinstates
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Description:

Lincoln Signs for Connected Soldier Who Grant Reinstates

This brief endorsement by President Abraham Lincoln to his new Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton forwards a letter from Captain James C. Slaght, an assistant quartermaster in the volunteer service. Slaght requested a transfer to the regular army at the same rank and position. Despite the War Department's objections that there were other, better-qualified candidates, Slaght brought his political connections to bear, and Lincoln made the appointment.

Slaght's wartime career as a quartermaster was complicated, to say the least. Sources offer conflicting evidence on Slaght's performance. He was court-martialed in the spring of 1864, and found guilty, but Lincoln remitted his sentence in the summer. Slaght gained promotion to colonel in the fall of 1864, but an examining board in December found him morally and physically capable but "exceedingly deficient in knowledge of the regulations, and orders" of the Quartermaster's Department, despite three years of service in it. Dismissed from the service in April 1865, he brought his political connections to bear again, so that in January 1866, he was allowed to resign rather than be dismissed, effective as of early May of 1865.

In this letter, Slaght offers as references Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward (1830-1915), the son of Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward; David R. Martin (1812-1893), the president of the Ocean Bank in New York City; and boot and shoe merchant William A. Hall of New York City.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Endorsement Signed, to Edwin M. Stanton, February 27, 1862, Washington, D.C. 1 p., 3" x 2".
With: James C. Slaght, Autograph Letter Signed, to Abraham Lincoln, February 19, 1862, Annapolis, MD, 1 p., 7.5" x 9.25"; framed, together with a contemporary lithograph of Lincoln with facsimile signature, to 30.25" x 19". Very good

Complete Transcript
Quartermaster Office
Annapolis Md. Feby 19th 1862
To
Abraham Lincoln
Prest of the United States
Sir
I hereby petition that I may be transfered from the Quartermasters Department in the Voltr service in which I now hold the rank of Captain to the Quartermasters Department in the Regular service also with the rank of Captain.
I am now forty three years old and I believe there is no blot upon my family escutcheon. For qualifications and character I beg leave most respectfully to refer you to Mr F. W. Seward Asst Secy of state, Mr D. R. Martin Prest. of the Ocean Bank N.York and Mr Wm A Hall Mercht of N.York City & well known.
I have the honor to be
Very Resply / Your Obt. Servt
Jas. C. Slaght
Cpt & A.Q.M. / U.S.V.

[Endorsement in Lincoln's Hand:]
Respectfully submitted to the War Department
A. Lincoln
Feb. 27, 1862.

Historical Background
After President Lincoln referred Captain Slaght's letter to the Secretary of War, Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, on March 26, 1862, referred the question to Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs with the request, "Will the Quartermaster General please inform this office if Capt. Slaght is so far superior to the other Brigade quartermasters, as to be singled out from their number for a permanent appointment in the army'also whether in his opinion, such an appointment could be made under the laws which regulate appointments in this Department." Meigs responded five days later, explaining that the law required that all appointments in the Quartermaster's Department be made from the Army. He continued, "Captain Slaght being an officer of Volunteers is not legally eligible to appt in the Regular Army as Quarter Master. There is nothing on record in this Dept. to show that even were he legally eligible he should be preferred above all other Vol. Q. Ms, some of whom have great merit." On April 2, Thomas added a note that he concurred with the Quartermaster General's views. On April 21, Brigadier General George L. Hartsuff, Assistant Adjutant General, added that the Secretary of War approved the recommendations of the Adjutant General and Quartermaster General.

Meanwhile, in February 1862, Congressman John Covode of Pennsylvania and Baltimore businessman J. Roman Ward wrote to Lincoln, urging the appointment of Slaght to a position in the Quartermaster's Department of the Regular Army. U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York admitted that he did not know Slaght but had "no reason to doubt the application is meritorious."

In January 1864, Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke relieved Slaght of duty as Post Quartermaster at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and ordered him arrested. Slaght was court-martialed, found guilty of "permitting government teams to be used in conveying goods outside the military lines of Baton Rouge for private persons," and sentenced to suspension of rank and pay for one year. However, both the judge advocate general and the president of the court martial wrote to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, requesting that the sentence be remitted because Slaght acted "rather from lack of vigilance than from criminal or improper motives" and because of his faithful prior service. Banks forwarded their recommendation to Secretary of War Stanton with a recommendation of "favorable consideration." On June 4, 1864, President Lincoln remitted Slaght's sentence.

In August 1864, D. R. Martin, the president of the Ocean Bank, wrote to Commissioner of Indian Affairs William P. Dole asking him to introduce Slaght to President Lincoln and ask that he be promoted to colonel. Martin declared, "I'll guarantee his honesty & I know that Capt. Slaght is fully competent & I shall esteem it a personal favor to me if Mr. Lincoln will order the appointment made." Despite Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs's assessment that Slaght was "not by service or so far as I am informed by merit entitled to any promotion" and his conclusion that "I regret that he is not out of the service," Lincoln made the appointment.

In mid-December 1864, a Board for the Examination of Quartermasters, assembled at New Orleans, examined Slaght and concluded that he "is exceedingly deficient in knowledge of the regulations, and orders governing the Q.M. Dep't, and to a degree that dis-qualifies him for the position of an Assistant Quarter Master, and that his length of service, and oppertunities of experience have been such that his ignorance is the result either of neglect or of inaptitude for the business of a Quarter Master." He was subsequently ordered to report to the Chief Quartermaster of the Armies operating against Richmond, and he reached there by April 1, 1865. He was dismissed from the service on April 28, 1865.

In July 1865, Slaght requested to be honorably discharged from the service rather than being discharged. In the resulting consideration of his request, Quartermaster General Meigs wrote to Secretary of War Stanton that he had reviewed Slaght's record and concluded, "It will be observed that he has seldom given entire satisfaction to his commanding officers'that much of his time has been passed in preparing to obey orders &c.'in preparing and appearing before, and awaiting results of Boards or Courts'that orders from the War Department relieving him in North Carolina and ordering him to duty in Department of the Gulf were nearly a year in being executed'that he is reported by one Chief Quartermaster as being intemperate." In January 1866, Quartermaster General Rufus Ingalls and Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant recommended that Slaght's dismissal be revoked and he be allowed to resign, effective May 6, 1865.

Slaght's obituary declared that "One of the relics highly prized by the family is the commission given Captain Slaght as adjutant quartermaster on February 21, 1862, signed by President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton."

James C. Slaght (1817-1911) was born in Burlington County, New Jersey. He married Melvina E. Willits in 1841, and they had at least two children. He was a merchant and shipmaster and became a leader in the Republican Party. He was a delegate to the convention in Chicago that nominated Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, he declined a post as consul to Cardiff, Wales, to accept a commission as a captain in the volunteer army. He served on the staff of Generals McDonald, Smith, Burnside, J. G. Foster, Banks, and Ulysses S. Grant. He served as chief quartermaster for Burnside's Expedition to North Carolina. After the war, he returned to Brooklyn and was appointed United States Weigher and later Superintendent of Internal Revenue Gaugers and Immigration Inspector. Later, he served as the keeper of official records in the Municipal Building in Brooklyn.

Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869) was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1834. In 1836, he married Mary Ann Lamson (1813-1844), and they had a son and a daughter, though their daughter died as a toddler. Stanton commenced his political life as an Ohio lawyer and antislavery Democrat. In 1856, he married Ellen Hutchinson (1830-1873), and they had four children over the next seven years. Stanton served as U.S. Attorney General under President James Buchanan in the winter of 1860-1861, during which time he strengthened the Administration's resolve against secession. Appointed as Lincoln's Secretary of War in early 1862, Stanton brought civilian-style order to the Army and War Department, improving the efficiency of the armed forces. His earlier success as a Pittsburgh lawyer honed his skills in negotiation and communication, allowing him to work with Congress and the president to ensure appropriate involvement in the conduct of the war by each branch of government, as specified by the Constitution. Continuing in the cabinet of President Andrew Johnson, Stanton clearly articulated the Army's role as a major agent in the implementation of Reconstruction policies. Disagreements over Johnson's position on Reconstruction led to Stanton's ouster and eventually to Johnson's 1868 impeachment. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Stanton to the Supreme Court, but Stanton died before he could take the oath of office.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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