2 Page Autographed Signed Letter from W.A. Harris to Thomas Caute Reynolds, May 1857, Regarding an Appointment to Lisbon
Item #018189
2als, May 1857. President Buchanan had been slow in making diplomatic appointments but because Thomas C. Reynolds (who became Confederate Governor of MIssouri) was one of his supporters and Harris's friend, Harris (who also was publisher of the Washington Union) is explaining the delay to Reynolds who had thought the appointment would sail through. Clearly, President Buchanan did not want to be bothered though his delay in naming ambassadors and staff was characteristic of his Presidency. Harris here includes a column he has clipped from the Union of May 23 which notes this delay and that appointments will be gradual. This illustrates not only the "do nothing" Presidency of Buchanan but also how the urbane and multi-lingual longed to be in Portugal. Reynolds as a Free Soil pro-slavery Democrat had already been involved in a dual with Gratz Brown who was a Republican anti-slavery Republican and publisher of the Missouri Democrat. The dual had taken placed on August 26, 1856 on Bloody Island and Brown was shot in the leg but Reynolds was not appointed though he became Lieutenant Governor of Missouri and once the Civil War broke out Reynolds went to Richmond to secure a guarantee from Jefferson Davis to protect the Missouri State secession convention if it were to be reconvened. His attempt to create a new pro-Confederate Missouri government failed, he went to Texas and after the Civil War fled to Mexico though late in his life he returned to St. Louis to practice law.
Price: $115.00