Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) to Edward Bates
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00482 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 13 January 1864 Pagination: 1 p. ; 19 x 13 cm. Order a Copy
Request to Attorney General Edward Bates for him to have made and sent to him a pardon for Benjamin C. Robertson of Dickson County, Tennessee.
Notes: Not in Basler, but Basler 7: 130, ALS to Governor Andrew Johnson, ca. January 15, 1864, and 130n, mentions a pardon for Robertson. Robertson died two days before he could take the oath. The judge, John S. Brien, who was to have administered the oath, wrote Lincoln that "[i]t is said to me today by a friend who was at his bedside when he died, that his greatest regret was, that he had not the opportunity afforded him to take the oath before his death." Brien wrote that Lincoln's pardon allowed Robertson's family to be provided for. (Basler 7: 130n). "Dixon" is a mistake for Dickson County.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Jan. 13, 1864
Attorney General
Sir
Please make out and send me a pardon for Benjamin C. Robertson of [inserted above: Dixon County] Tennessee.
Yours truly
A. Lincoln
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