Asst. Sec. of State Frederick W. Seward (Lincoln Assassination) Signed Letter

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ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE FREDERICK W. SEWARD (LINCOLN ASSASSINATION) AUTOGRAPH LETTERLetter signed as the Assistant Secretary of State dated 5/21/1877. A letter to the Adjutant General of New Jersey William S. Stryker thanking him for sending him the official "Register of New Jersey Men in the Revolutionary War. Seward was, of course the son of Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward and was injured in the assassination attempt of his father as part of the Lincoln Assassination Plot.Measures 8" x 10"Frederick William Seward (July 8, 1830 - April 25, 1915) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party who twice served as the Assistant Secretary of State . The son of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward , he served as Assistant Secretary from 1861 to 1869 under both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and then from 1877 to 1879 in the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes .Seward was born in Auburn, New York , the son of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward and Frances Adeline Seward and elder brother of General William Henry Seward, Jr. .He attended Union College and graduated in 1849 and was admitted to the bar in Rochester, New York in 1851. He served as a secretary to his father from 1849 to 1857 along with working as the associate editor of the Albany Evening Journal from 1851 to 1861.Role in the Baltimore Plot of 1861On February 21, 1861, Seward arrived at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia carrying valuable information in the form of a letter from his father William Seward for President-elect Abraham Lincoln. The letter contained information gathered by Colonel Charles P. Stone and General Winfield Scott .Colonel Stone had stationed three detectives from the New York police department in Baltimore , Maryland, to gather any information regarding a possible plot to assassinate the president-elect. Lincoln, making his way from Illinois to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration, had intended to stop next at Baltimore. According to information gathered by Colonel Stone's three detectives, secessionists were planning an attempt on Lincoln's life during his stop in Baltimore.The information that Seward carried for Lincoln would be one of the contributing factors to Lincoln's decision to pass through Baltimore under the cover of night rather than to make stop and appear in public there. Although Allan Pinkerton also warned the President-elect of the dangers that awaited him in Baltimore, it was Seward's information that confirmed everyone's fears.When his father was appointed Secretary of State in 1861, Seward became Assistant Secretary of State in charge of consular service under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He served in this position until 1869.Attempt on his father's life Main article: Abraham Lincoln assassination Frederick W. Seward during the Civil War.On April 14, 1865, Frederick Seward was injured in an assassination attempt upon his father the same night Lincoln was murdered. Lewis Powell a.k.a. "Lewis Paine", an ex-Confederate co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth attempted to kill William Seward, while the Secretary of State was convalescing at home from a carriage accident.This was Powell's part in the plot to put the government into chaos; Vice President Andrew Johnson and President Lincoln were also to be killed that same evening. After Frederick blocked Powell from gaining access to William Seward's bedroom, Powell tried to shoot Frederick in the head. However, when the gun failed to fire, Powell quickly smashed the pistol over Seward's head, causing several skull injuries. Seward collapsed and fell to the floor at the top of the stairs.Powell then burst into William Seward's room and stabbed him several times in the face and neck. Powell also injured a number of other bystanders, including Frederick's sister Fanny, his brother Augustus , his father's nurse Private George F. Robinson and messenger Emerick Hansell, but no one was killed. Seward's mother was sure th... read more

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