Autograph Letter Signed

Fayette County, Indiana, 1937. Very good. Autograph manuscript letter, 7.75" x 12.25", mailing folds into sixths, light age spotting along right margin. Legal complaint by lawyer Smith on behalf of his client for the recovery of a sum of $1806.72 plus $500 in damages due his client David Maze on recto. Verso contains filing information by County Clerk, G. Ginn.<br /> <br /> Caleb Blood Smith (Apr 16, 1808 - Jan 7, 1864) was an American journalist and politician, serving in the Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He was educated at Cincinnati College and Miami University, studied law in Cincinnati and in Connersville, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. He began practice at the latter place, established and edited the Sentinel in 1832, served several terms in the Indiana legislature, and was in the United States Congress in 1843-1849, having been elected as a Whig. Lincoln appointed Smith as the U. S. Secretary of the Interior in 1861 as a reward for his work in the presidential campaign. He was the first citizen of Indiana to hold a Presidential Cabinet position. However, Smith had little interest in the job and, with declining health, delegated most of his responsibilities to Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher. Smith resigned in December 1862 due to poor health and went home to become the United States circuit judge for Indiana. "David Maze the plaintiff in this suit complains of Joseph Reagan Absalom Sutton and Meredith Heelen defendants in custody re of a plea that they the said defendants reached unto him the said plaintiff, the sum of eighteen hundred and six dollars and seventy two cents which to him owe and from him unjustly detain.