Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-09
LETTER REVEALS
GIFT TO LINCOLN
Communication to Woman
Throws Light on Mans.
Personality. -.
Continued From First Page.)

/ politically gracious than in this &C
acknowledgements Of a pair of personal
ly knitted socks?"
AS 1t happens. this is the first time
the socks letter has been published.
What 1t reveals is nothing essentially
new about Lincoln. 1t merely tells us
of way we are familiar with from
many previous incidents.
From year TO year the collectors of
Lincoln data, the seekers Of materials
bearing on the question What kind of
q man was hep" 60 on with their work
Their research often carries over into
jobs OF sleuthing, of ferreting out in
dividuals, of tracking down documents.
! of examining faded and ragged court
house records, of hunting relatives
heirs and friends of So-and-So who
many years ago was said to have re-
ceived q communication from Lincoln
! Neither jackson nor jefferson nor
Washington nor Napoleon nor Crom-
well nor Luther nor Joan of Arc nor
Francis OF Assist has been followed
and noted In SO authentic a way, with
SO many streaks, colorS and Shadings
OF personality presented to us as in
the case Of Abraham Lincoln.
Autographed for Girl.
Years ago We arrived at the point
I "AASAS AAo" AAAANAABos ltcSIl QlSCONSIIcS,
bring nothing essentially revealing;
they merely deepen the impression we
already have of this or that phase of
Lincoln. Thus it is with few lines
Lincoln wrote in an autograph album
for a little Kansas girl, now an elder
ly resident of a city in Texas. The
lines read:
"Dear Mary:
with pleasure I write my name in
! album 1nno
man will be more happy to confer his
name upon you.
Don't allow it, Mary, until fully
assured that he is worthy Of the hap
piness. Dec. 7, 1859.
Your friend,
A. LINCOLN"
At q later time, when she was q
grown woman. Mary" obtained an
autograph of u. S. Grant, then in the
White House, to go on the same page
Of the album.
From the manuscript collection Of
Oliver r. Barrett of Chicago we have
another characteristic piece of Lincoln
| writing. In this Mrs. Lincoln joins her
husband in o recommendation of Mrs.
Sprigg, who kept a boarding house
where in l848 Representative Lincoln
and his wife were members of what
was called the mess" meaning those
who ate there regularly.
At the table of Mrs. Sprigg Lincoln
held long conversations with his
friends Joshua r. Giddings of Ohio,
a combative abolitionist, and Alexander
Stephens of Georgia, later vice presi-
dent of the Confederate States OF
America.
In the course Of a year. it seems,
Mrs. Sprigg's boarding house passed
from her hands, and in May. 1881, she
was seeking q place to earn a living
In Government employ.
/ Though Lincoln in that month was
/ confronted with tangled and terrible
problems, he took the time to write a
| gracious note of recommendation for
| the troubled woman. The note sub
| joined by Mrs. Lincoln indicates that
the position sought was in the Depart
ment Of the Interior, Of which Caleb
Smith of Indiana was secretary. tn"
notes read:
when was q member Of Congress
q dozen years ago, boarded with the
| lady who writes the within letter. She
is q most worthy and deserving lady;
and IL what she desires can be consist-
emily done, shall be much obliged. !
say this sincerely ere, and earnestly T1NGyyo,N.
I'VE boarded some months with Mrs.
Sprigg and found. her q most estimable
lady and would esteem 1t personal
favor II her request could be granted
! MRS A. LINCOLN" I
Early in 1865 a woman ran the block
ade, hoping that in the North she could
get clothing material for her children.
She was the wife of Col. A. 8. Bledsoe,
a high oficial in the Confederate War
Department at Richmond. Also she
had known Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln In
her younger days in Springfield. Ill,
and she wrote to Bishop Charles p.
McIlvaine of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, that when the first child OF
the Lincolns arrived. Robert Todd. she
had been helping friend and neighbor,
and that she gave the baby its morning
bath for a number OF days before the
mother got on her feet again.
Bishop McTlvaine was a relative OF
the BlPCsoes by marriage, and he asked
that President Lincoln should grant
her an interview and hear her request
for a pass through the Union Army
lines southwark. Lincoln wrote pass
and handed 1t to Bishop McIlvaine 10
among the Bledsoe DESCENDANTS now
living near Sound Beach. Conn, has II
that as Lincoln handed the pass to the
Bishop he remarked do not tell
Stanton I gave It,"
| ~ SsS AhOukH thtS
Six years later Mrs. Bledsoe presented
Jefferson Davis this identical card on
which Lincoln wrote an Army pass
And the former president OF the Con-
federate States wrote on 1t an affection
ate autograph and returned 1t to her
The writing on the card follows:
ALLOW the bearer Mrs. Harriet c.
BledSoe, to pass our lines with ordinary
baggage and go South.
"A. LINCOLN.
January Is, 1855"
Jefferson Davis for his dear friend
Mrs Anna Bledsoe, 18th May, 1871"
| A curious lost speech" of Lincoln'i
came to my eyes last Summer one day
as was reading the Congressional
Globe for 1861. 1t is the first Lincoln
address, one may believe, to have gone
into the Globe since Lincoln was q
member OF Congress twelve years pre-
vious. I designate 1t as lost
speech because have not thus far
met with it in the collections OF Lin
coin writings and speeches, nor in any
| OF the newspaper files / have examined
I for that period.
D 1T has, one may infer, been q lost
speech to all who have not taken this
monotonous Journey wearisome to the
r eye and the mind, through the yellow
=, ing pages OF the Congressional Globe
/ for 1861. Nor can one find the speech
by referring to the name of Lincoln In
} the index; that name is not anywhere
} mentioned in the Globe volumes pre-
; ceding Inauguration.