PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 04/29/1846 CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM MICHAEL COCKE, MILTON BROWN - HFSID 16382

ANDREW JOHNSON. Manuscript LS: "A. Johnson" as Congressman, 1p, 7¾x10. Washington City, House of Reps, 1846 April 29. Also signed: "Wm. M. Cocke" (the letter is in is hand) and "Milton Browne". The three Tennessee Congressmen write to Hon. George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy. In full: "You will please erase the names of the undersigned from the letter recommending to the Navy department William Houser of Tennessee as a suitable person for Midshipman in the Navy." In mid-January 1846, more than 3,500 troops commanded by General Zachary Taylor has moved south under President Polk's order from Corpus Christi to a location on the north bank of the Rio Grande. Therefore, enlistments at this time were higher because of an impending way. In the month of this letter, tensions between the U.S. and Mexico came to a head. On May 13, 1846, exactly two weeks after this letter withdrawing support for a Tennesseean to be a Midshipman, Congress declared war on Mexico. Fellow Democrat and Tennessean James K. Polk was President at the time. GEORGE BANCROFT was Polk's Secretary of the Navy from March 1845 until September 1846, when he became U.S. Minister to Great Britain. During Bancroft's brief tenure heading the Navy Department, he established the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and gave the order to take immediate possession of California. ANDREW JOHNSON, a Democrat, served in Congress from 1843-1853, when he became Governor of Tennessee. WILLIAM M. COCKE, a Democrat, served in Congress from 1845-1849. MILTON BROWNE was a Whig Congressman from 1841-1847. Folds, vertical touches the "r" in Andrew. Lightly creased, light show through from docket on verso of which "Hon George Bancroft" was written by Cocke and is slightly smudged. Erased pencil notations at upper right corner, else in fine condition.