Page 165
To Edwin M. Stanton1Jump to section
My Dear Sir: Messrs. Hedden & Hoey having had a contract with the United States government, closed on the 26th day of November last, to deliver fifty thousand arms to the government by the 15th day of January then next, upon specified terms and conditions, and having actually delivered above twenty-eight thousand within the time, which were accepted and paid for, and having been ready and offered to deliver the remainder, not within, but about ten days after, the contract time, which were refused solely on the question of time, and they having acted in good faith, and the arms being still needed by the government, I think fit to order that the question of time be waived by the government, and that the arms be accepted, if again tendered in conformity to the contract in all respects. Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.
Hon. Secretary of War.
Annotation
[1] Thirty-seventh Congress, Second Session, Senate Executive Document No. 72, p. 57. Upon Stanton's failure to follow Lincoln's instructions of March 15 (supra), George Ashmun as a friend of Hedden and Hoey wrote Lincoln on March 19, ``Most unaccountably he [Stanton] still hesitates in the matter notwithstanding the plain justice of the case, & your strong letter to him; but says that he shall be glad to be relieved by an order from you for the acceptance of the arms. . . . I. . . am quite sure that unless such an order be given by you inevitable ruin will fall upon the young men in whom I am so much interested.'' (DLC-RTL).