Lot 46
Grant, Ulysses Simpson (1822-1885)., 18th president of the U.S. (1869-1877), Army general in Civil War, accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House (1865).
DS as president, 21" x 16", [Washington DC], 1870 Mar 16. Presidential appointment of John Eaton Jr. of Tennessee as Commissioner of Education, signed "U.S. Grant", also by "J.D. Cox" as Secretary of the Interior.
Estimate 2,000 - 3,000
Eaton was a Dartmouth graduate and Army Chaplain. In November 1862 Grant named Eaton "superintendent of contrabands", contrabands referring to freed slaves. A month later he became general superintendent of freedmen for Mississippi, Arkansas, West Tennessee, and Northern Louisiana, serving as such until May 1865. He was commissioned colonel of the 63rd U. S. colored infantry in October 1863, and received the brevet of brigadier general of volunteers in March 1865. Subsequently he was appointed assistant commissioner of the bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands. After the war he was Tennessee's Commissioner of Public Schools until this presidential appointment. He served as Commissioner of Education from 1870-1886 and is credited with saving the Bureau of Education from being eliminated by congress.
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