PBA Galleries

1½ pp., in ink, on rectos of 2 sheets of lined paper. 25.5x20.5 cm. (10x8").

Wendell Phillips, the noted American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator and lawyer, writes to the president of the United States begging relief for a friend of his, the noted dentist Daniel Keyes Hitchcock, "To the President, Sir, my friend, Dr. D.K. Hitchcock, the bearer of this, was four or five years ago, surety, with others, for the Postmaster at Newton (Mass.), where he lives. Funds were stolen from this officer, which his death soon after prevented his repaying. There was no criminal default, only an accident..." While the debt Hitchcock was responsible for was at first not called in, a later official made efforts to collect it, and Phillips made use of his influence with Grant to make it whole.