Petition of Julius Rockwell and others to
Abraham Lincoln
14 March 1861
Pittsfield, Mass., March 14, 1861.
To His Excellency,
The President of the United States.
We, the Undersigned, respectfully beg leave to
recommend Mr. Herman Melville for the office of Consul at
Florence.
Mr. Melville has done much to enhance the
reputation of our national literature; is a gentleman of the
most estimable character, and is highly qualified for the post
we earnestly recommend and request may be given him.
Julius Rockwell
Theo. Pomeroy James D. Colt
H. Colt
P. L. Page
E H Kellogg
Robt Campbell
[Thos] Pollock
J. D. [Adams]6
To bolster his case, Melville went to Washington to
plead his case to Senator Sumner in person. On March 22,
he attended a levee at the White House and later wrote his
wife about the event: “A steady stream of two-&-two’s
wound thro’ the apartments shaking hands with ‘Old Abe’
and immediately passing on…. Of course I was one of the
shakers. Old Abe is much better looking than I expected &
younger looking. He shook hands like a good fellow–working
hard at it like a man sawing wood at so much per cord.”7
Thus, in a curious footnote in history, the Great
Emancipator came face to face with the author of Moby
Dick…and ultimately denied him a job. The handshake, three
petitions, and one letter Lincoln received on Melville’s behalf
were all in vain, for on March 27, Lincoln appointed T.
Bigelow Lawrence of Boston as Consul to Florence.8
Notes
1William Charvat, “Melville’s Income,” American Literature 15
(November 1943), 254-55.
2Lemuel Shaw to Charles Sumner, 21 March 1861, Record Group 59:
General Records of the Department of State, 1789-1949, Entry 760:
Letters of Application and Recommendation During the
Administrations of Lincoln and Johnson, 1861-1869, National
Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.
3Julius Rockwell to Charles Sumner, 25 March 1861, RG 59, Entry
760.
4Ibid.
5Abraham Lincoln to Julius Rockwell, 27 July 1860, Roy P. Basler, et
al., eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: First Supplement,
1832-1865 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1974),
10:57.
6Petition of Julius Rockwell and others to Abraham Lincoln, 14 March
1861, RG 59, Entry 760.
7Quoted in Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography, 2 vols.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 2:464.
8Appointment of T. Bigelow Lawrence as Consul to Florence, Italy,
27 March 1861, Record Group 59: General Records of the Department
of State, 1789-1949, Entry 778: Appointment Records, Commissions,
Permanent Consular Commissions, 1803-1910, vol. 4, p. 275, National
Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.
9Parker, 603-5.
A FORMER PRESIDENT CONSOLES ABRAHAM LINCOLN
5
Lawrence, son of former Minister to England and prominent
Republican Abbott Lawrence, was himself a seasoned
diplomat by 1861, having previously served as attaché to
the U.S. Legation at London.
Although Melville failed to secure a diplomatic post
from the Lincoln administration, he eventually met with
success in securing federal patronage. In 1867, the collector
of customs for the port of New York, Henry Smythe,
nominated Melville for the post of Inspector of Customs.
President Andrew Johnson approved the nomination, and
Melville began his new job on December 5, 1867. He earned
$4 per day, worked six days per week, and served in the
post for nineteen years.9
By Erika Holst, Research Associate
On February 20, 1862 , eleven-year-old Willie Lincoln,
arguably Abraham Lincoln’s favorite son, died in the
White House after falling ill with what was likely typhoid
fever. The president brought the sad news to one of his
secretaries. “Well, Nicolay, my boy is gone—he is actually
gone,” he lamented before bursting into tears. Lincoln later
reflected that Willie “was too good for this earth . . . but then
we loved him so.”1
The tragic death of Willie Lincoln struck a sympathetic
chord with former president Franklin Pierce, a man who
could certainly relate to the loss of a child. Pierce’s first son
died in infancy, and a second succumbed to typhus at the
age of four. His last son, Bennie, was with Pierce and his
wife in January 1853—less than two months before Pierce’s
presidential inauguration—when they were traveling by train
