Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47149

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47149

William P. Dole's Pass to the 1864 Union National Convention at Which Abraham Lincoln was Nominated for a Second Term as President. 5 x 3 1/2 inch printed cardstock. A pass admitting the bearer to the "Union National Convention," and granting access to the "Hall of Convention...during the sitting." Signed, "Edw McPherson" as Secretary of the National Executive Committee.

A pencil annotation in the hand of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dole reads, "Baltimore May 1864 / Nomination of A. Lincoln." Her notation slightly misdates the event, as the Baltimore Union Convention met in early June 1864, when the wartime Union Party formally renominated Abraham Lincoln for a second term. Organized as a coalition of Republicans, War Democrats, and border-state Unconditional Unionists, the convention also selected Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a War Democrat, to replace Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and strengthen the ticket's national appeal during the Civil War. This is the first example of a Union National Convention admission pass of this type that we have encountered, making it a very scarce piece of Lincoln campaign ephemera.

The pass was originally mounted on a page in a scrapbook kept by Lizzie Dole, wife of Lincoln's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. An image of the full page is available for reference and context. A printing of all the pages of the scrapbook will be included with the lot.

Condition: Previously mounted in a scrapbook, with heavy ghosting from the facing page visible across the center of the pass, creating an impression of Lincoln and Johnson's portraits. Mounting remnants on the verso and minor edgewear.

Provenance: Elizabeth Dole and by descent, to our consignor.

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