Charles D. Carr to Abraham Lincoln, 7 September 18581
Lex Sept 72 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllsDr[Dear] SirAt the request of Aunt Maria Bulo^l^ock who has been unwell lately and who is now too unwell to write in person I write to
you in order to request you not to renew any loans of her money in your hands3
She thinks this about the time that some of her notes fall due and in order that you
may not renew any of her notes or loans she wih^s^hes that you may notified in time.
She requests me to say that she would prefer that
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you would remit such money of hers as you can collect of hers to her by a Draft or Drafts on N York as you can ^procure^.– Exchange is a ½ per cent with us and I presume that it can be procured with ^by^ you at 1 per cent at least–
Money is worth with us one per cent per month and loans at that rate or discounts can be made every day to the best and
most solvent men in our Community–
She is extremely grateful to you for your past kindness and ^the^ many obligations you have conferred on her
For some weeks ^months^ past she has been suffering with attacks of chills & fever and the medicine necessary
to conquer
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the disease weakens and exhausts her so, that she lacks strenth to take the necessary exercise and air so necessary to a person habitually and constitionally sedentary, as she is.
As soon as conveniently write to her– please do so and remit such sums of money as
you can with a statement from whom collected &c[etc.]4
I see from the papers you are engaged in a stormy canvass! How carries on the ‘heady fight’–
Yours truly C D Carr<Page 4>
[Envelope]
LEXINGTON KY.
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 8 1858Hon. A. Lincoln,SpringfieldIllinois–
SEP[SEPTEMBER] 8 1858Hon. A. Lincoln,SpringfieldIllinois–
3Beginning in 1855, Abraham Lincoln acted as agent for Mary Lincoln’s aunt, Maria L. Bullock, in the sale of property owned by Bullock in Springfield.
As some of the purchasers paid for the land with promissory notes, Lincoln was involved
in the collection of these notes and in remitting payments to Bullock.
Abraham Lincoln to Maria L. Bullock; Maria L. Bullock to Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln sold land as agent for Bullock, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=141281; Bullock v. Viney, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=138395; Harry E. Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1943), 162, 166, 172.
4No response to this letter has been located. Carr wrote Lincoln two additional letters
on the subject of Maria L. Bullock’s financial affairs in December of 1858, and Lincoln
wrote to Bullock in January of 1859 to say that he could not at that time collect the money
owed her, but proposed to buy the debts and remit payment to her as soon as he was
able to access funds from loans he himself had made.
Charles D. Carr to Abraham Lincoln; Charles D. Carr to Abraham Lincoln.
Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).