To John P. Usher1Jump to section
The first time the Sec. of Interior call[s] here will he please mention the DeJanon case? A. LINCOLN
Aug. 15, 1864
Annotation
[1] AES, ORB. Lincoln's endorsement is written on a letter of J. R. Stewart to Usher, Washington, July 26, 1864, ``in behalf of Profr De Janon's restoration to the Professorship of Spanish at West Point . . . removed on personal grounds. . . .'' In the fall of 1863, Patrice de Janon, professor of Spanish at West Point, had been dismissed. On February 10, 1864, his wife, a niece of George D. Blakey of Kentucky, wrote Lincoln asking an interview for her husband and complaining that Lincoln had been rude to her at an interview a few days earlier, when he declared ``that it was the universal opinion that my husband was notoriously incompetent . . . & that he never would have obtained the appointment---but for the influence of my pretty face. . . . You have said also---that you had been told---that I exercised a bad influence over the `Corps of Cadets'. . . .'' (DLC-RTL). On June 25, George D. Blakey wrote asking de Janon's reinstatement and stating that J. R. Stewart, Blakey's attorney, would handle the case (Ibid). The U.S. Official Register, 1865, lists de Janon as again at West Point.