SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS– The short, handwritten note is a typical letter of reference for a man looking for work.
But the author is the President of the United States.
It’s also 1861, and the job seeker is a black man.
Abraham Lincoln wrote the appeal on behalf of his young friend William Johnson, because ironically his dark skin led the freed, lighter-skinned black White House staff to avoid him.
“The difference of color between him and the other servants is the cause of our separation,” Lincoln wrote in a letter dated March 16, 1861, which private collector Peter Twit donated in August to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, where it is now on public display. The recipient of the letter, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells, reported that he had no position available.
That a president in the mid-nineteenth century would show such personal interest in the well-being of the black man is astonishing. But consider that Lincoln was less than two weeks away from his inauguration, had seized control of the country by secession, and was on the brink of bloody civil war.
The short letter “contains layer upon layer” of revelations about Lincoln’s presidential debut, said Christina Schott, executive director of the library and museum.
“We see him trying to help a friend,” Schott said. “We see that even a new president can’t hand jobs casually.” “We see issues of class and color within the White House.”
Little is known about Johnson before he began work in 1859 as a servant and chauffeur for the Lincoln Company in Springfield. He traveled to Washington with the president-elect.
Lincoln referred to the 28-year-old Johnson in his letters as a “colored boy.” But James Conroy, a retired Massachusetts lawyer and historian whose books include a survey of Lincoln’s White House, said the singular service he rendered Johnson was characteristic of a great liberator. Lincoln treated the White House staff, which was largely composed of freed African Americans, with respect. In a separate article on the subject, Conroy wrote that Lincoln never asked for service but politely asked employees “and would not permit them to undertake any hardship he could raise.”
“No one can dispute that Lincoln was a very good man, very compassionate, trying to help people when he could,” Conroy told the Associated Press. “This includes black, white, male, female and everything else. He was a really good guy.”
It was not until November that Lincoln Johnson found a position in the Treasury Department. Lincoln maintained a close working relationship with Johnson, paying him to shave the president’s hair daily and often serving as a chauffeur.
Johnson accompanied Lincoln to Pennsylvania in November 1863 to attend the Gettysburg Address. Johnson nursed Lincoln when he developed symptoms of a mild case of smallpox during the trip. Johnson died of smallpox in early 1864. He likely contracted the disease from the president or during one of the many outbreaks of the disease in Washington at the time.
While Johnson was sick, Lincoln collected his pay and made sure it reached Johnson. Lincoln later paid for Johnson’s coffin and offered to repay Johnson’s loan of $150, but the bank forgave half of it.