American Historical Ephemera & Photography

4 pages, 7 7/8 x 10 in. Creased along old folds, soiling, mounted to paper border along fold. 

In this letter to President Ulysses S. Grant, written just two months after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Washburne thanks the president for his recent letter, remarking "It is a source of immeasurable gratification to know that my course as our representative in Paris during the unprecedented events of the last year meets with your approbation." Washburne then gives his own judgment of his performance, writing "I cannot see that I made any material blunders in all the responsible and delicate matters upon which I was constantly called upon to act. It seems almost impossible for me now to realize how I was enabled to perform all the functions of a Prussian Minister for eleven months among a people bearing the fiendish hate which the French bear towards the Germans. But I managed to get along through it all with nothing more serious than an idle threat..." 

Washburne then admits, however, that his position and the events of the past year have not come without some deleterious effects. "Yet it must be said that my acting as Prussian Minister has been the cause of a good deal of prejudice towards our Legation. The Paris people understand very well well [sic] that our sympathies in the United States were nearly all with the Germans and they seize hold of everything to prove it. They made a big howl over your message in regard to making the importance of the Berlin mission." 

Later, turning to matters on the home front, Washburne compares Grant's political prospects to Lincoln's, writing "I read the home papers very thoroughly and have a good idea of the situation. The political horizon looks much brighter than it did six months ago. You have had your troubles which always come to an administration at the middle of the term, but they were not so great as Mr. Lincoln had. When he had been in as long as you have now been in, he had reached a degree of unpopularity without parallel...I can now see nothing in the way of your triumphant nomination and re-election. The people fully understand the Sumners, the Squirtz (Schurz) the Trumbulls the Jack Logans and the Tiptons and Ferrys. But is it not rather hard to see our noble state crucified by such a representation in the Senate." 

Washburne ends fortuitously, "Next year comes the tug of war." He suggests that Grant and he spend the month of October in Galena, Illinois, as they will both have to vote there, and the people would like to see Grant among them. 

A Republican Congressman from Illinois, Elihu Washburne was a principal sponsor of Ulysses S. Grant, who resided in his district at the start of the Civil War, promoting his military and then his political career from 1861 on. As President, Grant appointed Washburne to be the US Minister to France, a post he would hold for more than eight years. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Washburne remained in Paris throughout the months-long siege of that city. He aided many Germans who were trapped in France during the War.

Provenance: Lot accompanied by photocopy of a letter providing provenance information for the letter from the previous owner, from whom the consignor obtained it: "The items were all found in the attic of my great aunt Martha Roundtree's home in Oak Park, Illinois...Her husband George Roundtree...was both an avid collector and a relative by marriage to the family of President Grant's wife...since my early childhood, I have always been told, by numerous family members, that it is because of Martha's marriage that our family became related, as such, to the family of General Grant."