SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The short, handwritten note is a typical letter of reference for a man seeking a job.
But the author is the president of the United States.
It is also 1861, and the job seeker is a Black man.
Abraham Lincoln penned the entreaty on behalf of his young friend, William Johnson, because ironically, his dark complexion caused freed Black White House staffers with lighter skin to shun him.
“The difference of color between him and the other servants is the cause of our separation,” Lincoln wrote in the March 16, 1861, letter that private collector Peter Tuite donated in August to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, where it is now on public display. The letter’s recipient, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, reported he had no position available.
For a president in the mid-19th century to show such personal concern for a Black man’s welfare is astounding. But consider that Lincoln was fewer than two weeks removed from his inauguration, taking over a country rent by secession, on the brink of a bloody Civil War.
The brief missive “contains layer upon layer” of revelations about Lincoln’s presidential debut, said Christina Shutt, executive director of the library and museum.
“We see him trying to help a friend. We see that even the new president cannot casually hand out jobs,” Shutt said. “We see issues of class and color within the White House.”
Little is known about Johnson before he started work in 1859 as a valet and driver for Lincoln in Springfield. He traveled to Washington with the president-elect.
