SILAS W. BURT - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/18/1881 - HFSID 300088

SILAS W. BURT
The civil service reformer seeks an auctioneer for his sale of household goods.
Autograph Letter signed: "Silas W. Burt", 3 pages (integral leaf), 5x8 folded, 10x8 unfolded. Naval Office, Port of New York, 1881 May 18. To "Messers Burdett & Dennis/29 Burling Slip, in full: "Can you recommend to me an auctioneer to make sale at my residence (or elsewhere) of a small lot of household effects, in reduction of our movables as we are temporarily giving up housekeeping and storing the selected part? It will include some good bedroom suites etc. but also a large quantity of ordinary furniture, utensils etc. - in fact, the usual debris after long service. It may be better to have the sale elsewhere than at the house but this the auctioneer could decide. You may be no more able to recommend than I am to find, but I have presumed that you could give me a name. Very truly yours". Newspaper clippings affixed to letter. Silas Wright Burt (1830-1912), a civil engineer, colonel in the New York militia, and advocate of civil service reform, was appointed Naval Officer of the Port of New York by President Hayes in 1878. At the end of his term, President Arthur appointed him Chief Examiner of the Civil Service System for New York (1883). President Cleveland re-appointed him Naval Officer of the Port of New York in 1885. (This appointment itself showed the progress of the civil service ideal, since in previous years appointments like this one were awarded on a patronage basis, with appointments by Presidents of opposite political parties unlikely.) Burt's final post was as Civil Service Commissioner (1895-1900). Heavily toned and worn. Edges worn and creased. Multiple mailing folds. Minor ink smears (not effecting signature). Newspaper clippings affixed on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.