Description:

(WILLIAM H. SEWARD)
(1801 - 1872) American politician and Lincoln's Secretary of State, responsible for preventing official European recognition of the Confederacy. A true, period copy of a war date letter, 2pp. legal folio, Washington D.C., August 14, 1861, to John L. Motley (1814-1877) author and U.S. minister to Austria. In part: '...The dispatch...has been reviewed and read with much interest. It relates exclusively however to the affairs of Austria, and does not seem to require any special remark from me, at the present moment, when the attention of this Department is so largely engrossed by the concerns of our own country at home...' Signed at the conclusion with a facsimile signature and a certifying statement by the scribe. Earlier that year Motley wrote letters to a London newspaper defending the Union position in the war, and printed a pamphlet titled 'Causes of the Civil War in America' that made a favorable impression on Abraham Lincoln. Due to this he was appointed a Minister to the Austrian Empire. He served in this role with distinction along other diplomats to keep European powers from intervening in the war on the side of the Confederacy.

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October 31, 2021 8:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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