“NOW DEAR ‘UNCLE ABE’”
Florence Watson and Delia Swain
(the editors are unable to determine which photograph
is which woman).
Modern Americans accustomed to an “imperial”
presidency doubtlessly find the inviting intimacy of the
office during the nineteenth century oddly touching. However,
in Lincoln’s day it did not seem out of place for average
citizens to reach out to their chief magistrate for help. When
the Treasury Department began hiring women as government
clerks in 1862, the torrent of correspondence flooding into
the White House included an increasing number of women
seeking federal jobs.1 From the shores of Beaver Dam Lake,
forty miles northwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a letter
arrived at the White House from two school teachers who
had heard that respectable ladies were being employed in
Washington.
Perhaps thinking it safer to write to the president in
tandem, Misses Florence Watson and Delia Swain believed
that Lincoln held the key to solving their own personal and
financial crises. Fearful that their actions might be considered
shockingly improper, the ladies might have quailed even
further had they known that while the president was indeed
“kindly and courteous” and had “a chivalrous deference for
women,” he viewed females who called upon him in the
prosecution of business, public or private, as simply “a lady
on business” due no special consideration.2 Nevertheless,
Watson and Swain’s letter offers a snapshot of how the
American public viewed the person and office of the
presidency:
Florence Watson and Delia Swain to Abraham Lincoln
March 27, [c. 1862-65]
Beaver Dam March 27
Respected President:
We are well aware that we are very bold and
presumptious in thus addressing you for we know you have
other and far more important matters claiming your attention,
but although this letter may not result in any good to us we
rely so much on your goodness, as to believe you will not
cast it aside without a perusall and without considering how
great a disappointment it will be to us, if it is not in your
power to grant our strange request.
For some time past we have been engaged in
teaching, but by this means after hard labor we have been
hardly able to make a respectable living, and as it is necessary
for us to support ourselves by some means, we have formed
this project of writing to you to ask you if there was not
some employment which you, by very little effort on your
part, could obtain for us and thus do us a favor which we
should always remember with gratitude.
Hearing that in some departments of the Gov’t, lady-clerks
are employed, and thinking such a situation would be
far more agreeable and profitable than our present one, we
came to the conclusion that there could be no harm in writing
you a private letter asking you to be so kind as to give us
something to do, or put us in the way of obtaining employment
As to our education, abilities and moral character
we can furnish testimonials if required. Now dear “Uncle
Abe” we having taken one bold step, dare to take another,
and say, that we want very much to hear from you—whether
you can do us any good or not—and receive the assurance
that you are not offended by our unusual conduct.
We enclose our Photographs, thinking you might
wish to know how we look.
Sincerely hoping you will not look unfavorably on
our request. We have the honor of remaining
Yours Respectfully
Florence Watson
Delia Swain
Direct to Florence Watson Beaver Dam Wisconsin, (Dodge
County)3
Like so many other eager applicants, Watson and
Swain hoped the president would personally respond to their
ardent plea and perhaps be swayed by the earnest faces
peering out of their enclosed photographs. Unfortunately,
their dreams of a presidential answer went unfulfilled. The
letter was channeled from the White House without
endorsement to the Treasury Department there to receive
