William P. Dole's Railroad Pass to Travel to Gettysburg on November 18, 1863 and Gettysburg Marshal's Ticket Dated November 1...

Description

William P. Dole's Railroad Pass to Travel to Gettysburg on November 18, 1863 and Gettysburg Marshal's Ticket Dated November 19. Both are mounted in a scrapbook assembled by Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dole, wife of William Palmer Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Abraham Lincoln. They are exceptionally rare relics directly associated with Lincoln's most noted oration: the Gettysburg Address.

The railroad pass, partially printed on white cardstock, 4 1/2 x 3 inches, permitted Dole to travel on the special train from Washington to Gettysburg on November 18, 1863, presumably alongside the President and his party. It reads, in full:

"War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., Novr. 18, 1863. Pass Hon. Wm. P. Dole To and from Gettysburg by Special train. 11.30. a.m. By order of the Secretary of War." Signed, "ED Townsend / asst. Adjt. Genl." With a contemporary annotation in red ink at the upper left reading "Gettysburg Dedication / Nov. 19/63."

This special train, arranged exclusively for the President and his closest associates, marked the beginning of Lincoln's historic journey to Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg had ended only four months earlier, leaving more than 51,000 casualties, and the work of interring thousands of soldiers was still ongoing. Lincoln's traveling party was small and select, consisting of Cabinet members and trusted officials, including Ward H. Lamon, his close friend and bodyguard, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, and Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher, whose calling cards are also preserved in this scrapbook.

The group departed Washington on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at just past 12 p.m. on November 18, stopping briefly in Baltimore before continuing north to Hanover Junction, where the train switched lines for the final leg to Gettysburg. They arrived at approximately 6:30 p.m., and Lincoln spent the night at the home of David Wills, the local attorney overseeing the dedication. Although Lincoln had already drafted his address prior to leaving Washington, he continued revising it en route aboard the very train this pass is for.

The Marshal's Ticket, printed on green cardstock, 3 1/4 x 2 inches, dated November 19, 1863, reads, in full:

"Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863. Marshal's Ticket / Pass the Bearer."

This pass allowed the holder to take part in the official procession and to stand with Lincoln on the speaker's platform. Ward H. Lamon, serving as Grand Marshal of the event, was responsible for security and directing the ceremony's officials, and this ticket was almost certainly issued under his authority. The procession departed from David Wills' home at 10:00 a.m., arriving at the cemetery a short time later to a crowd of some twenty-thousand onlookers.

Although Lincoln's address is now synonymous with the Gettysburg dedication in our collective memory, he was not the featured speaker that day. That honor belonged to Edward Everett, former Secretary of State and one of the nation's most celebrated orators. He spoke for more than two hours, comparing the Battle of Gettysburg to battles of antiquity such as Marathon and expressing hope for the nation's future reunification. Then, it was time for Lincoln to close the ceremony, and he followed with an address that shocked the audience by its brevity. Only one photograph of Lincoln on the platform was taken, as the event's photographers didn't realize how limited their time was. According to contemporary reports, many audience members didn't even realize that the speech had begun before it ended.

Reaction to the speech was mixed at the time, with several newspapers dismissing it outright; the Chicago Times called it the "silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." Author Gary Wills of Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992) wrote that Lincoln was said to have turned to Lamon and remarked that his speech, like a bad plow, "won't scour." Everett, however, immediately recognized its power, writing to Lincoln that he wished he could have come as close to the "central idea of the occasion" in two hours as Lincoln had in two minutes. It wasn't until long after Lincoln's assassination, during the 1876 Centennial, that the speech was brought to light again and made famous for its incredible power and depth portrayed in such few words.

Despite its preeminence in the American historical canon, relics directly connected to the Gettysburg Address are exceedingly scarce. These two passes, preserved by the wife of one of Lincoln's close associates offer a rare, firsthand link to the President's journey, the procession to the cemetery, and the dedication ceremony that followed. The scrapbook itself further documents Washington's wartime social world, containing more than seventy pages of calling cards and invitations from leading figures of the era. It contains the calling cards of Associate Justice David Davis, Rear Admiral Levin M. Powell, John L. Clem ("The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"), Secretary of War William W. Belknap, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, journalist John D. Defrees, Representative John Sherman, Attorney General Edward Bates, Justice Andrew Wylie, and Justice Arthur MacArthur, and dozens of others.

The scrapbook is an extraordinary snapshot of the aftermath of the Civil War's most consequential battle and the inner circle that surrounded Abraham Lincoln at a defining moment in American history.

Condition: Pass and ticket affixed to scrapbook pages with adhesive. Minor soiling and edgewear to each, including light creasing. Light ghosting from the facing page at the center of the railroad pass. Scrapbook covers rubbed with scattered soiling, joints cracked. Inner pages with adhesive staining and wear, including several instances of delamination and loss from cards removed at an earlier date.

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

More Information: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dole was the wife of William Palmer Dole, Lincoln's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Born in Bedford, New Hampshire, Lizzie married William Dole in 1861 after the death of her first husband, Frank Allis. When William was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs on March 12, 1861, the newly married couple moved to the nation's capital. With her husband now a member of the Lincoln administration, Lizzie found herself at the very center of Washington's political and social elite; a marked change from the small-town world she had left behind.

According to The History of Edgar County, Illinois (1879), William "was on the most intimate relations with the President so long as Mr. [Abraham] Lincoln lived." However, we can only speculate as to exactly when the two men were first acquainted. Born in 1811, he was two years younger than Lincoln, and in his youth traveled along the Mississippi River by flatboat selling produce. Lincoln similarly worked as a flatboat laborer during the same years. Dole moved to Paris, Illinois in 1854, and Lincoln spent time in Edgar County while riding the Eighth Judicial Circuit from 1847 to 1859. What is in the historical record is that Dole was an early member of the Republican Party, served as a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, and was an ardent supporter of Lincoln's nomination for President.

Lots 47146 to 47164 were assembled by Lizzie during her years in Washington. They speak to the access she had as a member of Lincoln's inner social circle and capture significant moments of both triumph and anguish. In addition to the two printed passes to the East and North rooms for Lincoln's funeral, note the quickly handwritten pass jotted by Mary Todd Lincoln's cousin, John Blair Smith Todd allowing entrance to the White House a day earlier on April 18, 1865. None but the most intimate of friends would have been welcomed by Mary on such a grievous occasion. An autograph album she began in the 1860s includes signatures as late as an 1898 signing by William McKinley; and so diverse as to include two signatures by "Kit" Carson, six associate Supreme Court Justices, and King Kamehameha V of Hawaii. The countless letters and calling cards collected are the story of a rich life that crossed paths with one of America's most cherished presidents.

The items have been passed down through multiple generations and are now offered here for the first time.