Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Manuscript document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, Washington, D.C., 27 July 1863. 1 page, 4to, on lined stationery with small embossed label at top "Philip & Solomons Washington, D.C.," integral blank, verso docketed: "recorded in the Dept. of State 27th July 1863," watered silk lined brown morocco gilt protective folder, matching quarter morocco folding box. PRESIDENT LINCOLN APPOINTS AN ACTING SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY "George Harrington [Assistant Secretary of the Treasury], is hereby appointed to discharge the duties of Secretary of the Treasury, during the absence of Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary." Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873), later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote the closing paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation, established the national banking system in 1863 and issued, with the National Tender Act of 1862, fiat currency or "greenbacks" to help finance the war. He was unargueably, though, one of Lincoln's more troublesome cabinet members and was a frequent critic of the President's administration. "Though not quite disloyal to the President, he nevertheless became the center of an anti-Lincoln movement" (DAB), and after offering several times to resign, his resignation was finally accepted by Lincoln in the summer of 1864. Upon the death of Justice Roger Taney, though, Lincoln chose Chase as his replacement. As Chief Justice, Taney presided over the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. Apparently unpublished, not in Collected Works , ed. Basler, or Supplements, but see 5:221 and 6:179-180 for similar interim appointments of Harrington as acting Secretary, on 19 May 1862 and 18 April 1863, respectively.