Salmon P. Chase Critiques First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln

SALMON P. CHASE CRITIQUES FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Thomas F. Schwartz The Illinois State Historical Library recently purchased a large collection of nineteenth-century manuscripts relating to Abraham Lincoln's associates. Among the documents were several letters written by members of Lincoln's cabinet addressed to Derby and Miller Publishing Company. The letters endorsed Alexander H. Ritchie's engraving of Francis Bicknell Carpenter's painting First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln.1 Save for Salmon P. Chase's protean but entertaining letter of May 2, 1866, written directly to Carpenter, the letters reveal little that is startling. Taken as a whole, however, they help clarify when the Ritchie print was released for mass distribution and contrast sharply with Chase's response to Carpenter. The story of Carpenter's famous painting is well known.2 From February until July 1864 Carpenter set up shop in the White House as he went about sketching and painting Lincoln and his cabinet. The first viewing took place at the White House on July 22, 1864, although this public showing was largely limited to the president's family, cabinet members, and other interested parties. Carpenter exhibited the painting only for a short period after the July 1864 debut because he was unsatisfied with the result. Nevertheless, he signed a contract with Derby and ' Several thousand documents were purchased at the sale of the King V. Hostick Collection , Leslie Hindman Galleries on Saturday, Apr. 20, 1985, Chicago, Illinois. Four letters which directly comment on the Ritchie print areGideon Welles to F. B. Carpenter, Ma)' 15 and Sept. 24, 1866, F. W. Seward to Derby and Miller, May 19, 1866, and Salmon P. Chase to F. B. Carpenter, May 2, 1866. All are housed at the Illinois State Historical Library, Manuscripts Division. 2 Carpenter's own account is contained in Six Months at the White Housewith Abraham Lincoln: The Story of a Picture (London: Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1866). Another account is found in Charles E. Fairman, Art andArtists of the Capitol of the United States of America (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927), 305-9. Civil War History, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, © 1987 by The Kent State University Press SALMON P. CHASE85 Miller, allowing them to make and distribute an engraving based upon his painting.3 Once the contract was finalized, subscription sheets were printed and distributed around the country. Derby and Miller offered the print at a variety of prices, ranging from fifty dollars for an artist's proof copy to ten dollars for a common print.4 President Lincoln was the first to subscribe for an artist's proof copy, followed by his cabinet members who also purchased artist's proof copies. Previous authorities have indicated that the print was issued sometime after the president and his cabinet subscribed, placing public sales in late 1864 or early 1865.5 The actual public distribution of the print, however, clearly occurred after Lincoln 's assassination, probably in May 1866. The revised estimate is based upon the assumption that Lincoln's widow and his cabinet surely would have received the first prints.6 To ensure better public sales, Derby and Miller solicited statements from Lincoln's cabinet members, as well as several other Lincoln associates . Excerpts were printed in both a promotional brochure and advertisements that appeared on the end pages in later editions of Carpenter's book, Six Months at the White House. The advertisements contain portions of a letter by Gideon Welles, Lincoln's secretary of the navy, while the letter of Frederick W. Seward—son of Lincoln's secretary of state, William H. Seward—was printed in its entirety. Welles praised the work as "well done," adding that "some feeling of sadness" came over him when he gazed at the portrait of "the great and good man [Lincoln] . . . whom we all loved." Frederick W. Seward claimed "the fidelity of its portraits enhances the historical interest derived from the subject of the picture." Distributing the picture as an engraving permitted it, as Seward exclaimed, "to be seen and appreciated everywhere throughout the world."7 Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's troublesome secretary of the 3 See Mark...