"BRAVO! MY GOOD BOY": AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON THE EVE OF THE 1864 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION—AN EXCEPTIONAL LINCOLN FIND

LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph Note Signed "A. Lincoln." [Washington]: Nov. 2, 1864. Small sheet of wove paper, measuring 4-3/4 by 3-1/4 inches, penned on recto. $98,000.

Extraordinary autograph note written and signed "A. Lincoln" by President Lincoln less than a week before winning the Presidential election of 1864, referring to himself humorously as "Mr. L." and expressing doubts about whether he would be reelected, while remaining firm about the "cause of the country," victory in the on-going Civil War. Exceptional and revealing, especially given its brevity, this is one of the most intriguing Lincoln items we have come across.

Written days before the 1864 Presidential election, this previously undiscovered brief note to an unspecified recipient uses unusual language for the generally reserved and stoic President. He seems to congratulate, in a fatherly way, a younger man for delivering hopeful news about the upcoming election, held six days later on November 8, 1864. The note, dated "Nov. 2, 1864" in Lincoln's hand, reads in its entirety: "Bravo! My good boy. Whether Mr. L. Shall be re-elected or not, he feels sure that you will stick to the cause of the country. A. Lincoln."

This note employs what we think is Lincoln's second known use of "Bravo." Three weeks earlier, he had sent a cipher telegram to Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton, congratulating Morton on his reelection on October 11. Lincoln concluded his October 13 telegram with "Bravo, for Indiana, and for yourself personally." The state elections in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were seen as harbingers for the presidential election a month later. In the presidential election, Lincoln and Johnson won Indiana with 53.6 percent of the vote to McClellan's 46.4 percent. Lincoln also rarely used the phrase "the cause of the country." It appears twice in his recorded 1861 writings, three times in 1862, twice in 1863, and none thereafter to our knowledge with the exception of this note. In a May 9, 1862 dispatch to General George B. McClellan, Lincoln wrote: "The success of your army and the cause of the country are the same." In a congratulatory message to the Army of the Potomac on December 22, 1862, he wrote: "you possess all the qualities of a great army, which will yet give victory to the cause of the country and of popular government." In the present note, Lincoln refuses to equate his reelection with the "cause of the country," feeling victory in the Civil War to be more important than the election. Likewise, Lincoln's use of "Mr. L." to refer to himself is unusual but not unprecedented. He used it frequently in the 1860 autobiography he wrote for John L. Scripps and also used it occasionally early in his presidency.

The familiar language used at the beginning of the note suggests that the recipient was close to the President, who jokingly refers to himself in the third person. The brevity of the note suggests that it may have been sent as a telegram in response to a received telegram or letter. The tone of the note does not suggest it was written as a souvenir for a visitor; for example, his note for a Methodist minister from Binghamton, NY, who visited the President at the White House that same day reads, much more simply, "For G.H. Blakeslee—A. Lincoln—Nov. 2, 1864." We believe that the reference to "my good boy" may suggest Lincoln's oldest son Robert T. Lincoln as the likely recipient, and the reference to "Mr. L." in the next sentence may be tongue-in-cheek. After graduating from Harvard College in July 1864, Robert began attending Harvard Law School in September of that year. On October 11, the President telegraphed his son, "Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us how you are. If you think it would help you make us a visit." Robert responded to his father by telegraph the same day, "Indisposition only temporarily I will write today." In February 1865, President Lincoln signed the commission of his son as "Assistant Adjutant of Volunteers with the rank of Captain," and Robert joined the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant for the final months of the war. Robert finally received his L.L.D. from Harvard in June 1893.

Another possibility for the recipient is Lincoln's personal secretary, John Nicholay, with whom Lincoln was very close. In late October and early November 1864, Nicolay was in Springfield, Illinois, where he was closely monitoring the progress of the campaign in Illinois. Perhaps this note was a response to one of Nicolay's political dispatches from Springfield. "Abraham Lincoln's private secretaries, [Nicholay and Hay] became, both literally and figuratively, closer to the president than anyone outside his immediate family. Still young men in their twenties, they lived and worked on the second floor of the White House, performing the roles and functions of a modern-day chief of staff, press secretary, political director, and presidential body man…'The boys,' as the president affectionately called them, soon came to know him intimately…Nicolay's rapport with Lincoln was more formal [than Hays'] but still close. The president trusted him to act as his political gatekeeper…Though the secretary never played a consultative or strategic role in formulating administration policy, the president trusted him to manage key political relationships and gave him wide leeway in enforcing orders and directives" (Zeitz, Lincoln's Boys). Old pencil price ($150.00) on verso.

Faint marginal ghosting from a previous matt, with hinges affixed along upper edge on verso. Faint fold lines. Lincoln's signature bold and fine. An extraordinary Lincoln item.