Browse Items (31 total)

This permit authorized Fergus Peniston, a Louisiana cotton merchant, to transport and sell the cotton he possesses. In order to obtain this permit, Peniston wrote several petitions to Lincoln and enlisted friends of the administration to write on his…

Abraham Lincoln to William Kellogg, rejecting his attempts to secure a cotton permit for former Illinois legislator, Amos Babcock. Lincoln scolded Kellogg for his single-minded pursuit of a permit and observed the corruption already associated with…

Just three months after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln issued a proclamation to reform the cotton trading system laid out in 1861. As trade grew in the Mississippi Valley in 1862 and 1863, the permit system was plagued by…

This affidavit, written by Alphonse Boudousquie and certified by Governor Michael Hahn, affirmed that Fergus Peniston and William Pike owned substantial quantities of cotton and were loyal citizens of the United States during the war. Affidavits like…

Engraving for Harper's Weekly of cotton and sugar brought out to be sold after the fall of Memphis to the Union Army.

Editorial written in 1864 by Edward Atkinson, a cotton mill executive and abolition activist. He argued that the current cotton trading system is inefficient and rife with corruption. Since it did not prevent money and goods from getting back to the…

Letter from Elihu B. Washburne to Abraham Lincoln taking issue with his decision to revoke Ulysses S. Grant's General Orders No. 11, expelling Jews from his military department.

38th Congress Committee on Commerce Investigative Report to accompany Bill H. R. No. 805; Investigating Trade with Confederate States.

The New York Herald published the testimony of Confederate officer regarding the effects of the official cotton trade between the Union and the Confederacy. According to the transcript, the cotton trade directly prolonged the war by giving the…

In this letter, Fergus Peniston, a Louisiana cotton merchant, requested permission from the executive branch to transport a substantial amount of cotton to market. He further petitioned President Lincoln for relief from certain taxes and to trade…