Draft of inaugural address, January 1789. George Washington (1732–1799),

C0063_Bx38a_F15_Washington_Inaugural_Bd_MS_1st_pgIn preparing to become the country’s first president, Washington asked his aide David Humphreys (1752–1818) to help him draft remarks for an inaugural address to the first Congress. Washington rewrote Humphreys’ lengthy draft (now lost) in his own hand, but eventually decided to deliver a much shorter speech. Only fragments like this one remain of his copy of Humphreys’ version. Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915. Manuscripts Division, André de Coppet Collection.

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Letter to Francis Preston Blair, Sr., December 21, 1860. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865),

Lincoln to Blair am21313_Lincoln_ltr_p1 cropAfter Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in November 1860, seceding states seized federal forts within their own borders. In this confidential letter to politician Francis Preston Blair (1791–1876), Lincoln orders that federal forts lost before his inauguration in February 1861 must be retaken afterwards. In April 1861, his attempt to send supplies to Fort Sumter in South Carolina resulted in the first shots fired in the Civil War. Gift of P. Blair Lee and E. Brooke Lee. Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division.

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