LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Autograph endorsement signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, [Washington], 1 February 1864. Accomplished on the docket of an affirmation of loyalty to the Union from James J. Wilson.

One page, bifolium, 320 x 202mm (fully split along two original folds, there reinforced with tape, some blank sections of integral leaf excised).

Lincoln permits a captured Confederate soldier to take the December 8th oath of loyalty and be discharged. James J. Wilson, previously a member of the 14th Louisiana Regiment within the Confederate Army and then imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison, writes the complete oath of loyalty as dictated in Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. Many Lincoln pardons are clipped from the original manuscript, and pardons revealing such context are quite scarce on the market.