First Full-Term Black U.S. Senator - Mississippi - 1875-81; Appointed Register of the U.S. Treasury - 1881

Document Signed, 8 ½” x 14”, Washington, D.C., September 8, 1890, “B.K. Bruce,” as District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds, on reverse of a real estate deed of trust.

Lightly and evenly toned, with one small hole along one of three folds.

American Industrialist – New York Central Railroad Founder; Democratic U.S. Congressman – 1857-59 & 1861-63

Autograph Letter Signed, 5” x 8”, as U.S. Congressman from New York, responding to a request for the appointment of the former U.S. Minister to Ecuador, Van Brugh Livingston, from William W. Campbell, a prominent New York judge and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and promising to pursue the matter directly to President James Buchanan.

“Washington, Dec. 18, 1858. W.W. Campbell, Esq., My dear Sir, I duly rec[eive]d your favor of the 25th ult[imo] requesting my aid in obtaining the appointment of Doct[or] Livingston as consul at La Union San Salvador. I have seen the Dep[ut]y Sec[retar]y of State who will advance to the President to make the appointment. I hope to see the President on Monday when I trust I shall be able to bring the matter to a point. Yours Very Respectfully, Erastus Corning.”

Several light folds and a light diagonal crease at lower left, well away from text.

Union Brigadier General – New York

GRATIOT, CHARLES (1786-1855)  U.S. Brevet Brigadier General

A West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran, Cullum served as aide to Lieutenant General Winfield Scott early in the war and later as chief of staff to Major General Henry W. Halleck. He became superintendent of West Point in 1864 and served in that capacity for two years.

Franked Postal Cover, 8" x 10", “Geo. W. Cullum,” as lieutenant and assistant to War Department Chief Engineer Charles Gratiot, addressed to a future Union brigadier general, “Lt. Geo. W. Morell, Corps of Engineers, Newport, R.I.” in another hand, and bearing a June 17 [1836 ], Washington, D.C. postmark. Contained in the four-page letter-sheet are two printed War Department letters, one concluded with the printed signature of War Secretary Lewis Cass, the other signed by Gratiot, “C. Gratiot,” both concerning an 1836 act of Congress relating to the payment of Revolutionary War pensions.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1786, into the prominent Swiss family which had been instrumental in the early development of the city, Charles Gratiot was appointed cadet by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1806 and was commissioned in the prestigious Corps of Engineers. In the course of a thirty-year military career, Gratiot served as chief engineer to General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812 and was instrumental in numerous construction projects, including building of the fortifications in Charleston, South Carolina and Hampton Roads, Virginia. He was brevetted brigadier general in 1828. During the Civil War, a prison bearing his family name, the Gratiot Street Prison, became notorious for its use in holding captured Confederate soldiers, southern sympathizers, and anyone else deemed disloyal by the Union forces occupying St. Louis.

Lightly and evenly toned, with the usual folds and minor paper loss at top from the opening of a wax seal; one tear, with no paper loss, runs from near the address, along a fold, to the edge of the letter-sheet.

Republican U.S. Congressman & Senator - Massachusetts - 1857-93; Commission Chairman for the Five Civilized Tribes - Indian Territory – 1893-1903

Autograph Quotation Signed, on a 2 ¼” x 4 ¾” slip of paper.

“There is no such word as ‘fail’ in a brave boy’s dictionary. H.L. Dawes.”

Minor bleeding of ink in several areas; light vertical fold at center.

Founder of the American Express Company; Democratic Mayor of Buffalo, New York – 1862-66

Document Signed, New York, July 7, 1873, “Wm. G. Fargo,” as company president, a partly printed 7 ¾” x 11 ½” stock certificate issued to Augustus Keep for 100 shares in the American Express Company. 

Hole-punch cancellation at far left; perforation cancellation at lower left, through the signatures of the company secretary and treasurer.

U.S. Army Officer & Civil Engineer; Supervised the Construction & Opening of the Panama Canal

Signature, “Geo. W. Goethals, New York, N.Y., Sept. 16/[19]27,” on a light 3” x 5” card.

U.S. Senator – New York - 1857-63

Civil War-Date Autograph Letter Signed, two pages, on front and reverse of a 7 ¼” x 9” sheet, to former New York State Senator Edward M. Madden, regarding King’s inability to secure a brigadier general’s appointment for former New York Lieutenant-Governor Gustavus A. Scroggs, also a brigadier general in the state militia.

“Ogdensburgh [New York], Aug. 7, 1862. Hon. E.M. Madden. Dear Sir, Yours of July 29 is rec[eive]d here. Papers were placed in my hands in favor of Genl. Scroggs which I presented to the President in his behalf before he was nominated to the Senate. I do not doubt he would have been confirmed by the Senate but for the number of nominations that were made. The number nominated by the President very largely exceeded the number of Brigadier Generals authorized by law. For that reason and not from any personal cause Genl. Scroggs and many others could not be confirmed. The full number two hundred authorized by law were confirmed. I talked freely with the President and with Genl. Scroggs during the session at Washington but I am reluctant to approach the President further on the subject. Respectfully, Preston King.”

Shortly after war broke out in 1861, General Scroggs, the sheriff of Erie County, New York, was authorized by the War Department to recruit four regiments for a brigade of New York Volunteers. Only one regiment, designated the 100th New York, was fully organized, and the unit saw action from the Peninsula through the war’s end, most notably at Fair Oaks and in the ill-fated July 18, 1863 assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. 

In early 1864, Scroggs was made colonel of the newly-organized 25th U.S. Colored Infantry, with orders from President Lincoln to proceed to Indianola, Texas, where his unit and three others composed of freedmen would constitute a brigade, with Scroggs as brigadier general. After the near-foundering of their transport ship off the North Carolina coast, the 25th U.S. Colored Infantry arrived in New Orleans on May 1, near the conclusion of the disastrous Red River campaign. Union General Nathaniel Banks immediately negated President Lincoln’s order, and the unit remained under his command in the Department of the Gulf. Scroggs thereupon resigned, having never received the promised appointment to brigadier general.

Lightly and evenly toned, with soiling along upper horizontal fold on first page.

Confederate Congressman – Florida – 1862-65, U.S. Senator – Florida – 1849-55

FULKERSON, SAMUEL V. (1822-62) 
Confederate Colonel – 37th Virginia Infantry, Killed-in-Action at the Battle of Gaines Mill – June 26, 1862. 


Autograph Note Signed, 8” x 10”, recommending the son of War of 1812 hero Harold Smyth to President Fillmore for an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“I have been acquainted with Col. Harold Smyth from my boyhood and have often heard his services in the War of 1812 spoken of in the highest terms of commendation by officers who served with him. I most cordially unite with the members of Congress from Virginia in presenting the name of his son to the President for one of the appointments at large of Cadets at West Point. Jackson Morton of Florida. Senate Chamber, Feb. 4/[18]52.”

In a fifteen-line Autograph Note Signed on the reverse, Samuel V. Fulkerson, at the time a young Virginia attorney and member of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, further notes the transfer of Smyth’s admission application from West Point to V.M.I.

“W.C.R. Smyth, S[tate] C[adet], Wytheville. (Explanation) I am informed that this is a portion of an application made to the President for the admission of Mr. Smyth as a cadet at West Point, but on failing in that, the application is made to the V.M.I. to be admitted as a State Cadet from the 15th District. Saml. V. Fulkerson.”

A Mexican War veteran and V.M.I. graduate, Fulkerson later served as judge of Virginia’s thirteenth judicial district from 1857 until the outbreak of the Civil War. As Colonel of the 37th Virginia Infantry, Fulkerson saw action from the war’s early western Virginia battles through Gaines Mill, where he was killed in the successful Confederate assault on the Union lines. In a glowing condolence letter, Stonewall Jackson, whose longtime friend and favorite Samuel had been, assured his relatives that Fulkerson would have undoubtedly been recommended for promotion to brigadier general had he lived.

Tiny holes at the center intersections of the usual folds; heavier soiling and wear along folds on reverse.

Revolutionary War Colonel; U.S. Secretary of War – 1795; U.S. Secretary of State – 1795-1800

Signature, with closing, “your most obed[ien]t Serv[an]t, Timothy Pickering,” on a 1 ¾” x 4” slip of paper, removed from a handwritten letter.

Mounted, with several light wrinkles and creases.