TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION, ABRAHAM LINCOLN PARDONS TWO CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS AFTER THEY ESCAPE THE FRONT LINES.
Autograph endorsement signed. [Washington:] 10 February 1865. Five lines in ink in Lincoln’s hand reading “Let these two men/take the oath of Dec. 8. 1863 & be discharged /A. Lincon/Feb. 10. 1865.” The endorsement penned on the verso of a letter dated February 8th, 1865, being a petition by John Dougherty seeking the release of two prisoners “conscripted into the Rebel service.” 8 x 5 inches (19 x 13 cm). Provenance: American Art Galleries, 10 November 1932, lot 67, accompanied by a letter.
President Lincoln’s endorsement and signature on a discharge document dated about two months before his assassination. The endorsement is written on the verso of a petition on behalf of two conscripted Confederate soldiers, as was Lincoln’s practice. The letter is written from a man who visited Washington in an attempt to meet with President Lincoln personally but was unable to do so. While the text of the petition is difficult to make out in its entirety, the prisoners, William A. Busby (who was imprisoned at Camp Morton) and C. Dozier (who was at Rock Island), apparently were captured after escaping the front lines, and the writer of the letter suggests they take the required oath as mentioned by Lincoln in his note.
On December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation granting pardons to those who took an oath of loyalty to the United States. The oath was part of Lincoln’s plan to weaken the Confederacy and end the Civil War. The Oath reads in part: I do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union of states thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide and faithfully support all acts of Congress…
