LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Partly-printed document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, Washington, 11 July 1864. Also signed by George R. HARRINGTON (1815-1892) as acting Secretary of the Treasury.

One page, 445 x 340mm (stained on lower edge, light soiling along usual folds).

A military appointment of Alvan A. Fengar as Captain of the Revenue Service, signed by Lincoln and the man who would later organize his funeral procession. Alvan A. Fengar (1835-1896) would end his military career in this rank after serving aboard numerous Coast Guard skippers during the Civil War. His lengthy maritime career would end after his command of the USS Bear, in which he served as the first Revenue officer to command that vessel after the Revenue Service joined with the Lifesaving Service to form the United States Coast Guard. Fengar would lead the ship and her crew to the Arctic in 1885, where according to the Coast Guard's website, the Bear would become the first U.S. law enforcement presence in the newly-purchased Alaskan territory.

George Harrington, who signed here as Acting Secretary of the Treasury, was interestingly never officially designated as Acting Secretary; rather, Harrington managed departmental operations during the transition between Salmon Chase (who officially resigned on 30 June) and William P. Fessenden (whom Lincoln appointed Secretary of the Treasury the following day). Harrington soon became better known for organizing the President's funeral, for which he served as the Grand Marshal. Two days after the assassination, Harrington would write to Fessenden, who himself resigned as Lincoln's Treasury Secretary a couple months prior: "I am sorry to say the whole charge of the funeral fixed for Wednesday has been put upon me. Heavens, I have enough to do without this." See the Library of Congress's National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections, which provides a summary of the George R. Harrington Papers, currently housed in the Huntington Library: https://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/2015CivilWar/06_Harrington.html.