FRANKLIN PIERCE | A letter from President Pierce, noting the character of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis

FRANKLIN PIERCE

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("FRANKLIN PIERCE") AS 14TH PRESIDENT, TO CHARLES A. STETSON, PROPRIETOR OF THE ASTOR HOUSE

2 pages (7 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.; 197 x 248 mm) on a single leaf, written recto and verso, Washington, 4 November 1856; minor creasing, some primarily marginal spotting.

A letter from President Pierce, noting the character of Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis

"My dear Sir, I presented your letter...addressed to Mr. Webster to the Secty of War this morning. It has just been returned with the following endorsement..."

At the time, Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War.  Pierce, after winning the presidential election, appointed Davis to this position, where he began the Pacific Railroad Surveys in order to determine various possible routes for the proposed Transcontinental Railroad.

In the present letter, Pierce goes on to note: "What you say of the Secretary's 'rigid Military habits' is all true, but...I know no man, who enjoys more fully an opportunity to do an act like this than Gen. Davis." It would seem that Charles Stetson, the proprietor of Astor House, Manhattan's first luxury hotel, had attempted, through his various connections, to arrange the return of a Major Wyse to his family in New York.