[RECONSTRUCTION]. CARDOZO, Francis Lewis (1836-1903). Autograph letter signed ("F.L. Cardozo"), as Secretary of State of South Carolina, to Simons & Simons. Columbia, SC, 23 January 1871.

1 page, 4to, on State of South Carolina, Office of Secretary of State letterhead, old creases, small tear to left edge, some offsetting.

Correspondence to the Charleston law firm of Simons & Simons regarding a "Power of Attorney to sell real estate from Jesse W. Norris to William Payne."

Francis Lewis Cardozo holds the distinction of being the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States when he was elected Secretary of State in South Carolina in 1868. He was born in South Carolina to Lydia Williams Weston, a free woman of color, and Isaac Nunez Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew who worked in the US Customhouse in Charleston, SC. After his father's death, Francis studied at the University of Glasgow and later at seminaries in Edinburgh and London, receiving ordination as a Presbyterian minister.

He returned to South Carolina in 1865 as an agent of the American Missionary Association to establish schools and colleges for freedmen. Shortly thereafter, he became involved in Republican politics. Despite winning reelection in 1874 and 1876, at the withdrawal of Federal troops and the seizing of state control by Wade Hampton III, he was forced into resignation. From 1878, he was appointed to positions in the Treasury Department in Washington D.C.

RARE, the Francis Lewis Cardozo family papers (1864-1968) are held by the Library of Congress, however, there are no auction or trade records of Cardozo manuscripts ever sold.

Collection of Tom Charles Huston