Sold – President Millard Fillmore Appoints an Old Protege Chief Auditor of the Post Office Department

Gideon J. Ball was the son of pioneers of Erie, New York who spent part of his young manhood in Buffalo. A political Whig, there he met and formed a congenial relationship with New York assemblyman and then Congressman Millard Fillmore. Perhaps encouraged by Fillmore, young Ball returned to Erie and became active in Whig politics, and in 1847 was elected to the state legislature. In 1849, when Fillmore became Vice President of the United States, Ball was selected as New York State Treasurer. However, Ball only held the post for a year, as after Fillmore assumed the presidency in 1850, he named Ball chief clerk of the sixth auditor of the Post Office Department. Despite this title, during most of his service in Washington, Ball was Acting Auditor, essentially head of that department.

Autograph Document Signed as President, March 17, 1851, making this exact appointment. "I hereby appoint Gideon J. Ball auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department ad interim during the absence of J.W. Farrelley from this city. Millard Fillmore." Comes already matted.

Autograph appointments by Fillmore as President are uncommon, and this one has the advantage of the personal connection between the two men, one created decades before.

When Fillmore left the White House, Ball returned to Erie and served numerous terms in the state legislature. When the Civil War broke out he entered the army as a major.