Description

Description: New York lawyer and politician Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888) penned this September 22, 1871 letter to T. Apolion Cheney Esq. which reads: “My dear Sir: I have your letter and note your news for which I am much obliged. I will endeavor to obtain the Doc. you refer to, though I haven’t it now. Mr. Sessions or Mr. Shelden has it perhaps, the quota for the Dist. having gone to one or the other. I regret that excess of occupation compels me to be brief.”

Conkling was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party, a faction that opposed Rutherford B. Hayes’s civil service reform. He served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1859 to 1863 and again from 1865 to 1867 and as a U.S. Senator from 1867 to 1881. Conkling was also the last person to have declined the position of U.S. Supreme Court justice after having already been confirmed.

Written on a 7 1/4” x 4 ½” sheet of stationery. Item #A01413

Condition: Mailing fold lines, some feathering of the ink, otherwise good condition.