The short, handwritten note is a typical letter of reference for a man seeking a job.
But the author is the president of the United States.
It is also 1861, and the job seeker is a Black man.
Abraham Lincoln penned the entreaty on behalf of his young friend, William Johnson, because ironically, his dark complexion caused freed Black White House staffers with lighter skin to shun him.
“The difference of color between him and the other servants is the cause of our separation,” Lincoln wrote in the March 16, 1861, letter that private collector Peter Tuite donated in August to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, where it is now on public display. The letter’s recipient, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, reported he had no position available.
For a president in the mid-19th century to show such personal concern for a Black man’s welfare is astounding. But consider that Lincoln was fewer than two weeks removed from his inauguration, taking over a country rent by secession, on the brink of a bloody Civil War.
The brief missive “contains layer upon layer” of revelations about Lincoln’s presidential debut, said Christina Shutt, executive director of the library and museum.
“We see him trying to help a friend. We see that even the new president cannot casually hand out jobs,” Shutt said. “We see issues of class and color within the White House.”
Little is known about Johnson before he started work in 1859 as a valet and driver for Lincoln in Springfield. He traveled to Washington with the president-elect.
Lincoln referred to the then-28-year-old Johnson in letters as a “colored boy.” But the individual favor he bestowed on Johnson was characteristic of the Great Emancipator, said James Conroy, a retired Massachusetts attorney and historian whose books include a survey of Lincoln’s White House. Lincoln treated the White House staff, largely made up of freed African Americans, with respect. In a separate article on the subject, Conroy wrote that Lincoln never demanded service but asked staffers politely “and let them bear no hardship he could lift.”
“Nobody can question that Lincoln was a very kindly guy, very empathetic, trying to help people when he could,” Conroy told The Associated Press. “And that crossed Black and white and male and female and everything else. He was a genuinely good guy.”
It wasn’t until November that Lincoln found Johnson a position at the Treasury Department. Lincoln maintained a close working relationship with Johnson, paying him to shave the president daily and often act as chauffeur.
Johnson accompanied Lincoln to Pennsylvania in November 1863 for the Gettysburg Address. Johnson nursed Lincoln when he showed symptoms of a mild case of smallpox during the trip. Johnson died of smallpox in early 1864. It is possible he contracted it from the president or during one of several outbreaks in Washington at the time.
While Johnson was sick, Lincoln collected his paycheck and ensured it got to Johnson. Lincoln later paid for Johnson’s coffin and offered to pay off a $150 loan of Johnson’s, but the bank forgave half of it.
