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MAJOR GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/25/1871 - HFSID 30298

He seeks to reclaim letters about a fellow officer sent to a Democratic politician, fearful that the correspondence has been tampered with! Autograph Letter signed: "Winfield Scott Hancock", 2 pages (integral leaf), 5¾x8¾. St. Paul, Minnesota, 1871 June 25. To James W.

Sale Price $637.00

Reg. $750.00

Condition: Slightly soiled, otherwise fine condition Add to watchlist:
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WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK
He seeks to reclaim letters about a fellow officer sent to a Democratic politician, fearful that the correspondence has been tampered with!
Autograph Letter signed: "Winfield Scott Hancock", 2 pages (integral leaf), 5¾x8¾. St. Paul, Minnesota, 1871 June 25. To James W. Wall, Elizabeth, New Jersey, in full: "I sent you a letter concerning Forsyth, a particular one from [?]. I asked you to send it back. Did you ever receive it? I sent you a card which was sent to me from Wisconsin marked Hancock and [?]. Did you ever receive that? I requested you return it. I in any case need to know if our letters are tampered with. If you did not receive these papers I am satisfied they are. Truly yours". Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886), a highly successful Union Corps commander during the Civil War and a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), was the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 1880, losing very narrowly to James A. Garfield by a margin of fewer than 40,000 votes out of 9 million cast. (The Electoral Vote margin was wider, but far from a landslide: 214-155.) Hancock was the ideal Democratic candidate for the era, with impeccable Unionist credentials but a strong advocate of states' rights, and was considered for the Party's Presidential nominations of 1868, 1872 and 1876, before securing it in 1880. When he wrote this letter, his political position was delicate. A supporter of President Johnson's Reconstruction policies, lenient toward white southerners, he was removed from a Southern command by Republican President Grant, and reassigned to the Western frontier. Cavalry commander General George A. Forsyth had been acclaimed a hero after the Battle of Beecher Island (September 1868), where he defeated a force of Cheyenne Indians and killed legendary warrior Roman Nose, the Cheyenne leader most determined to prevent the incursion of white settlers into Indian lands. While Forsyth had no political ambitions of his own, he was a protégé of General Phillip Sheridan, a close ally of Grant. Hancock may have had serious reason to fear that incautious remarks about Forsyth might be used against him. James W. Wall, a former Democratic Senator from New Jersey, held views very similar to Hancock's: opposition to secession; support for states' rights. Wall died in 1872. The fate of the Hancock-Wall correspondence is unknown. Hancock was Commanding General of the U.S. Army's Department of the East, headquartered on Governor's Island, from 1877 until his death. Two horizontal and one vertical fold. Slightly soiled. Slightly worn. Otherwise, fine condition.

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