Fascinating letter penned in the summer of 1863 by John W. Lewis to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. In his letter, Lewis offers to lend Davis up to $5,000, interest free, after hearing of the destruction of the President’s Mississippi property by Union soldiers. According to the letter, Lewis may have become acquainted with Davis after a chance meeting on a train.
Lewis was born on a prosperous South Carolina plantation. He and his sister inherited a substantial estate after the death of their parents. John began his life’s work in medicine and dabbled in politics, taking a seat for a year in the South Carolina legislature, but his interests turned to religion in the early 1830s and became an ordained minister. In the late 1830s, he moved to Canton, Georgia where he labored as a pastor but also made substantial investments in real estate, iron furnaces, merchant mills, and other businesses. His wealth and popularity grew such that he was nominated to the Georgia legislature in the mid 1840s, and in the late 1850s, he was appointed by Gov. Brown to be the superintendent of the Western & Atlantic railroad. During the Civil War, he filled a vacant state Senate seat by the appointment of Georgia’s Governor. Biographical sketches attest to his generosity and his willingness to assist his acquaintances with loans. He died on in June 1865 just after the close of the war.
Lewis’s letter apparently reached Davis, as the paper was initialed by his private secretary Burton Harrison. One wonders if the President of the Confederacy accepted the generous loan offer and if he did, whether he ever paid paid the Lewis estate back.
The letter is in excellent condition.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate]