1 p. on bifolium; 8 x 5 in. (203 x 127 mm), on Executive Mansion stationery; creasing from old folds.

Reads in full: "Hon. Sec. of War: My dear Sir I want Robert J. Stevens appointed an Additional Pay-Master if it can be consistently done. He is a Son-in-law of an old friend Col. Baker--I want this done. Yours truly A. Lincoln".

In an act of patronage to a late friend and confidante, President Lincoln directs Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to appoint Robert J. Stevens (1824-1889) as Pay Master. Stevens was the son-in-law of Colonel Edward D. Baker (1811-1861), a longtime close friend and political ally of Lincoln's.

Baker and Lincoln became closely associated during the mid-1830s, when they both rose through the same legal and political circles in Springfield, Illinois. A fellow Whig, Baker served alongside Lincoln in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1837-40, and ran against him in 1843 for the Whig nomination for Congress (neither won, but Lincoln orchestrated Baker's nomination two years later). As a measure of their friendship, Lincoln named his second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, after him.

Like many Whigs, in the 1850s Baker aligned himself with the rising Republicans. During Lincoln's campaign for the presidency in 1860, Baker was instrumental in carrying California and Oregon for Lincoln, the latter while serving as its senator. The two men revived their friendship upon Lincoln's election, and it was Baker who introduced Lincoln to the audience gathered on the east portico of the Capitol at Lincoln's first inauguration, stating, "Fellow citizens, I introduce to you, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States."

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Baker reenlisted in the Army (having previously served in the Mexican-American War) as a Colonel, while retaining his seat in the Senate, and became a close confidante to the President in matters relating to the war. He visited Lincoln for the final time on October 20, 1861, and was killed in battle the very next day, at the Battle of Ball's Bluff. He is the only sitting senator to be killed in combat. Basler, First Supplement, p. 229.

Provenance:

Charles J. Hamilton Catalogue, 22 September 1966, no. 252

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California