$1,600
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Auction: November 12, 2020 10:00:00 AM EDT
Washington, D.C., October 31, 1866. 3 3/8 x 8 in. (85 x 203 mm). Partially printed check, from Tennessee businessman and politican Michael Burns to Dempsey Weaver, Vice President of the Third National Bank of Nashville, drawn on the First National Bank of Washington, D.C. for $14,600, and endorsed by Johnson on verso: "Executive Mansion/Nov 5th 1866/Please pay first National Bank/Andrew Johnson." Tax stamp in top left; vignette at bottom left; cancellation cut at right; bank stamp dated November 5th at same. Creasing from old folds. Lot includes an engraved portrait of Johnson.
An extremely rare check, endorsed by seventeenth president Andrew Johnson, days before the midterm elections of 1866--the first election after the end of the Civil War, and one that would go on to drastically affect the course of Reconstruction. The check facilitates the payback of loans Johnson made when he was Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862.