Abraham Lincoln Signed Naval Commission.

April 21, 1864. American naval commission signed by Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and Gideon Welles as Secretary of the Navy. Folio, partially engraved on vellum the document is dated April 21, 1864 and promotes Charles W. Tracy to the rank of Lieutenant. In near fine condition. Matted and framed with a portrait of Lincoln and engraved plate. The Commission measures 19 inches by 16 inches. The entire piece measures 34 inches by 29.5 inches. Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, the country's greatest moral, cultural, constitutional, and political crisis, and in doing so preserved the Union of the United States of America, abolished slavery, and strengthened the federal government. Lincoln ran for President in 1860, sweeping the North in victory. The South was outraged by Lincoln's election, and in response secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861. War began in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, just over a month after Lincoln's inauguration and, after years of deadly military conflict, officially ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. On April 14, 1865, just days after the war's end at Appomattox, Lincoln was attending a play at Ford's Theatre with his wife Mary when he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is remembered as the martyr hero of the United States and is consistently ranked as one of the greatest presidents in American history.