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Petition of Orville H. Browning and Others to Zachary Taylor, [7 November 1848 - 5 March 1849]1
To Genl[General] Zachary Taylor President Elect of the United States–
The undersigned Citizens of the state of Illinois beg leave to recommend one of their fellow Citizens Col[Colonel] N Green Wilcox to the favorable Consideration of the President and heads of departments, should he make application for office, and receive an appointment, we doubt not that the duties of any station which he would accept, will be discharged with honesty and fidelity–2
O. H. Browning H. Fellows
R S Blackwell Wm A Minshall
Jas L D Morrison Thomas Munroe
William, H, Ray
R. S. Thomas Archibald Williams
E Keating– N Bushnell
U F Linder M Hay
E N Powell
John Denny H, O, Merriman
John T Stuart
J Gillespie H. H. Gear
E. Z, Ryan R Yates
Ninian W. Edwards A C– Harding
George. W. Rives Wm Kellogg
John H. Sconce C B Davis G, Turnbull
A H Gross W H Crandell
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Ben: BondJ. B. HarrickJohn W. HendersonP. MaxwellJosiah HarrisonThos M. KillpatrickM. P. SweetM, Y, JohnsonG B WallerAnson S. Miller.Wm PickeringCurtiss BlakemanJ. W. SmithJos. CrawfordDauphin BrownR. B. Ewing
[ endorsement ]
We Cheerfully concur with the above gentlemen in their expression in favor of Mr Wilcox, and bear [Ch?] willing testimony to his fine capacity and Character,E, D, BakerA. Lincoln3
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[ endorsement ]
I know personally most of the persons who have signed the foregoing paper & take pleasure in saying that their high character entitles their statements to implicit confidence & great respect. I have also known Col Wilcox for many years as a gentleman of great prominence the the whig party of the state & as their candidate for many high offices, and among them those of Lieut[Lieutenant] Governor & congress. He possesses decided talents & qualifications for official business & sustains an unblemished character for morality & integrity, whilst I take pleasure in saying thus much for Col Wilcox I must be distinctly understood as being entirely opposed to the removal of the persons now in office, whom I believe to be honest & well qualifiedS A Douglas4
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[ docketing ]
4
Receiver Land Office
Still Water Minnesota
1849
N. G. Wilcox
Letter signed by all the Whig members of the State of Illinois including many of the most influential men in the State
O. H. Browning
Judge A Williams
Judge Minshall
&c &c–[etc etc]
1Hart Fellows authored this petition, which was written sometime between Zachary Taylor’s election on November 7, 1848, and his inauguration on March 5, 1849. On page two, Abraham Lincoln signed his name to an endorsement written by Edward D. Baker.
Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 368, 415.
2In June 1849, Lincoln repeated his recommendation of Nathaniel G. Wilcox for the General Land Office in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ewing. Wilcox received the appointment of receiver at Stillwater, Minnesota, and he served until 1852.
Augustus B. Easton, History of the Saint Croix Valley (Chicago: H. C. Cooper, Jr., 1909), 1:356; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1849 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1849), 138; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), 142.
3Baker wrote and signed this endorsement. Lincoln signed his own name only.
4Stephen A. Douglas wrote and signed this endorsement.

Autograph Document Signed, 4 page(s), Division of Politics and Reform, National Museum of American History (Washington, DC).