$350
Estimate: $300 - $500
Auction: February 18, 2021 10:00:00 AM EDT
Polk Place, Nashville, Tennessee, December 23, 1878. 3 pp. on one lined sheet folded to make four pages; 8 x 4 7/8 in. (203 x 124 mm). Intimate autograph letter, signed by former First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, to Mrs. Ransom Hooker Gillet, expressing her deep condolences on the death of her son: "I was not aware of the death of your dear & beloved son...Allow me my dear friend, most sincerely to offer my deep sympathies in this your great sorrow & affliction...You and I my dear Mrs. Gillet are almost alone in this connecting link of the past, of memories most dear. Now in the evening of my life, I often ask myself, why am I here?" Creasing from original folds.
Ransom H. Gillet (1800-76) and James K. Polk (1795-1849) served together in Congress from 1833-37, Gillet was subsequently appointed to treasury posts upon Polk's ascendancy to the presidency. After Jame's death, Sarah Polk encouraged Gillet to write her husband's official biography, after having read Gillet's biography of her friend and politician, Silas Wright (1795-1847), but he declined.