RICHMOND VA SEP 12 1861 circular datestamp, Powell type 2b, with matching PAID 2 (type B, CCV $500) on small locally addressed envelope to His Excellency Vice President Stevens (sic) Richmond Va; top back flap missing as usual with this popular correspondence; secretarial docketing indicating the sender was Georgia K. Smith who requests Mr. Stephens to present her father’s name (T. Butler King) to the President for an appointment as minister to Europe. Ex Harry Muldrow. $275.

Thomas Butler King (1800-1864) was an antebellum member of the Georgia State Senate and a U.S. congressman. Although born in Massachusetts, he settled on St. Simons Island, Georgia in 1826 and engaged in agricultural pursuits despite his law degree. He was appointed a commissioner of Georgia in 1861 to visit Europe in the interest of trade, and was a commissioner of the Confederacy in Europe 1861-1863, so it appears Georgia’s letter worked. Her husband was CSA Brig. Gen. William Duncan Smith.