Abraham Lincoln, Autograph Note, Signed

Description

Despite the blockade of all Confederate ports by the Union Navy that President Lincoln called for at the outset of the war, there was still a system of trade in Northern states to acquire Southern cotton, their most desirable product.

The Lincoln administration knew that an outright ban of the cotton trade would encourage illegal smuggling, and therefore employed a permit system hoping it would allow the product to reach Northern textile factories without monopolies developing. The bureaucracy was imperfect and rife with corruption. Treasury Agent officials such as Risley were lax about regulations, and often issued trade permits to friends, or those with political connections.

Risley was certainly the most notorious of these agents.  He called himself, “agent for the purchase of products of the insurrectionary states.”  (Of note:  Hanson Risley was the father of Olive Risley, William Henry Seward’s adopted daughter!)

As well, Lincoln needed to keep the votes of New York manufacturers, with Thurlow Weed being in the thick of it.  So here, just a few weeks before the crucial 1864 presidential election, Lincoln was most likely tending to their needs through Risley.  Indeed, just nine days later, Lincoln sent Emily Tubman, a cotton planter from Georgia, a pass up to New York City for that very purpose and reason.

Economist David D. Surdam describes how Lincoln “…was at least sensitive to the potential scandal from the cotton trade. In some instances, he refused to issue permits because of the impropriety involved. Still, the cotton trade, with its attendant profitability, probably posed too great a temptation for any set of men to avoid some sinful behavior; Lincoln was not surrounded by saints.” (Traders or Traitors: Northern Cotton Trading During the Civil War, p. 310). Not in Basler.

Lincoln, Abraham. Autograph note signed (“A. Lincoln”) to Hanson A. Risley. [Washington, D.C.], 17 October 1864.  3” x 4”; 1p.