Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: William T. Otto to Walt Whitman, 12 January 1865

Date: January 12, 1865

Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00219

Source: Oscar Lion Papers, 1914–1955, New York Public Library, New York, N.Y. The transcription presented here is derived from Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1914), 3:470-71. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Kathryn Kruger, and Vanessa Steinroetter




Department of the Interior,
Washington,
January 12, 1865.

Sir:

Upon reporting at this Department and passing a satisfactory examination you will be appointed to a First Class Clerkship at a compensation of twelve hundred dollars per annum.1 I am, Sir, very respectfully, your obt servant


W. T. Otto, Assistant Secretary.2

Walt Whitman, Esq. Brooklyn, N. Y.


Notes:

1. Less than two weeks after this letter, on January 24, 1865, Otto informed Whitman of his appointment as clerk at the salary of "$1200 per annum." [back]

2. William T. Otto (1816–1905) was Assistant Secretary of the Interior. William D. O'Connor had arranged an interview for Whitman with Otto for a clerk position in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. [back]


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