Lincoln Signs Pass For Slaveholding Woman & Child to Cross the Lines, Showing Compassion

This brief pass, written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, allowed Sarah Clarke and one of her sons to pass the Union lines and "go South." Her husband was a soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Note Signed, February 28, 1865, Washington, D.C. 1 p., 3.25" x 2". Includes an envelope with text, "Abraham Lincoln's pass for Grandmother Clarke & my father to pass the northern lines during the civil war. / Catherine Clarke Anderson Frederick / Lincoln assassinated April 14, 1865," 3.5" x 6". Evidence of prior mounting; card evenly toned; text and signature clear and attractive.

Complete Transcript
Allow the bearer, Mrs Clark & child, with ordinary baggage, to pass our lines and go South.
Feb. 28, 1865                            A. Lincoln

Historical Background
Catherine Clarke Anderson Frederick (1884-1945) wrote that this pass referred to her grandmother and her father. Her father's name was Frederick W. Clarke (1859-1902). He was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, and he had one older brother Edward Hobson Clarke (1856-1930).

His parents were William Hobson Clarke (1829-1905) and Sarah Catherine White Clarke (1828-1878). They married in 1855, and in 1860, William Clarke was a farmer in Cumberland County, Virginia, fifty miles west of Virginia. He owned $9,000 in real estate and $4,493 in personal estate, mostly the value of the thirteen enslaved African Americans he owned. At the beginning of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Army of Northern Virginia and served throughout the war. After the Civil War, he moved his family to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he became a tobacco dealer and founded William H. Clarke & Company. He and Sarah Clarke had two sons before her death.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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