GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM. 1831-1881.
Document Signed ("James A. Garfield") as President, 1 p, folio, Washington D.C., February 18, 1881, partially printed and accomplished in manuscript, appointing William J. Bryan as Postmaster of Brenham, Washington County, Texas, countersigned by Thomas L. James as Postmaster General, gold Post Office seal with two red ribbons affixed to lower left, folding creases, some blearing to last three letters of signature, small loss at meeting of two folds, faint offset to signature from seal. Matted and framed.
Material signed by Garfield as President is rare, as he only held office from March 4, 1881-September 19, 1881, the date of his death following his July 2 shooting by Charles Guiteau. The present item is dated two weeks before Garfield took office; either the document is misdated—there is another clerk's error in the document, supplying the name "William J. Brenham" in the second name blank—or (more likely) the document was filled out in advance of Garfield's swearing in. (The Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate records Bryan's nomination to the post by Garfield's predecessor, Rutherford B. Hayes, on February 11, 1881, and approval by the Senate on February 18.)
