The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

2pp., 4to (394 x 248 mm), separations along folds, minor losses; original envelope with A FOUR-LINE PENCILED ENDORSEMENT IN THE HAND OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, "James Shrigley wants to be re-nominated as hospital Chaplain."

In part: "My name was lent to the Senate about the [illegible] as Chaplain to the Military Hospital in Philadelphia... In consequence of some irregularity, the nominations of all the chaplains have been returned to the President. I understand His Excellency is to renominate only a portion of the list returned to him. Could you speak a kind word to the President to induce him to include my name in the list of renominations?"

This letter is followed by a note from Preston King to Abraham Lincoln, which reads in full, "The Reverend Thomas J. Sawyer recommends to the above to me for confirmation by the Senate supposing him to be nominated. I know Mr. Sawyer and hold great respect for his opinion."

James Shrigley was a Universalist minister who emigrated from England to the United States in 1821. Following his ordination as a Universalist minister in 1835, he moved to several cities in the Northeast before settling in Richmond in 1858, where, as minister of the Independent Christian Church, he called for the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union. Following the Virginia Legislature's vote to secede from the Union in 1861, Shrigley moved to Philadelphia, where he continued to minister in local churches and tended to wounded soldiers. In 1862, he applied for a Chaplaincy in the United States Army. In response to this, a group of Protestant ministers traveled to Washington and directly prevailed upon President Lincoln to deny Shrigley's application because, as Shrigley believed in the salvation of all souls, including rebels, he was unfit for the position. Lincoln replied that if this was so, then Shrigley was certainly qualified. Shrigley served at Philadelphia's McClellan Army Hospital until the war's end.