JACKSON ORR (D.1926) IOWA CONGRESSMAN FIVE SIGNED LETTERS W/ENVELOPE TO B.F. GUE

Description

FIVE LETTERS WRITTEN BY IOWA CONGRESSMAN JACKSON ORR TO HON. BENJAMIN F. GUE, FORT DODGE, IOWA (LOT of 5)
These are five (well preserved) letters from the 1870's by Congressman Jackson Orr of Iowa. They were all written by Orr while in Washington, DC and mailed to
Fort Dodge, Iowa to the Honorable Benjamin F. Gue, the retired Lt. Governor of Iowa.
The letters all talk about politics but one letter does mention President Grant and the Federal Civil Service that was started in 1871. It says:
"The Civil Service operation
of Grant is I think the Blunder of his administration but we have it forced upon us - The Great trouble in Charley Byam's case is that Bangs the the Supt of the RR post offices has
been
mysteriously wrought upon tho hold him at all hazards and the
civil
service is a convenient shield for him to hide behind. He is thus enabled to take a position he would not dare to take if it were not or Civil service (But its total
annihilation
is certain) but time must be lost doing it."
Very interesting, for we still have Civil servants, Post Office, etc.
Each of the FIVE letters comes with transcription (done on an old typewriter).
The first letter is "Free Frank(ed)" while the
remaining
four were sent in House of
Representative
envelopes. The four H.O.R. letters all bear the Congressional embossing.
Postmarked:
February 21, 1870
March 28, 1871
December 14, 1871
February 29, 1872
April 8, 1872