Yardsale relic

[MrBern]

summary:
BIRMINGHAM, England — An amateur historian believes he has unearthed a letter written by the President Lincoln — after buying it for $1.89 at a parking lot sale.

The document, dated March 10, 1864, commissions Grant as lieutenant general and was presented to him by Lincoln.

A spokesman at the Library of Congress said: "According to our official collected records of Abraham Lincoln, the original of this letter has never been found.

full article
http://www.nysun.com/article/40834

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Wow, that is quite the find. I wish I had that kind of luck at the local yard sales in my area!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Whew. Someone's about to make some money ... Silly to give it up for free.

bk

 

[Harp]

ALincoln legal briefs

When I was in law school, the State of Illinois
ordered all courthouses in central and southern Illinois to search
for any Lincoln casenotes still held in trial record binders.
Nineteenth-century backwood lawyers frequently deposited their
case memoranda in local district courthouses because of insufficient
office storage. Apparently a considerable cache of Lincoln's legal writing
was subsequently discovered and impounded by the Illinois
Attorney General's Office.

 

[jazzzbaby]

A buck .89 and found in England!
I would love to hear the story behind that framed article!

 

[Midnight Palace]

Thats really cool! Being a history buff, something like that would've really interested me. We have our share of historical documents in Philadelphia, but I've never run across one at a yard sale

 

[MrBern]

I had a friend who bought some costume jewellery. Later he found out there were diamonds mixed in with the junk. He was dumbfounded. LAter he realized that soem old lady mustve been hiding her good stuff in with the cheap, and when she passed, her family didnt notice the difference.

as the expresson goes...pearls before swine.

 

[Gray Ghost]

Lincoln on Slavery Letter

Lincoln Letter On Slavery Found In Raleigh

POSTED: 6:30 pm EDT October 25, 2006
UPDATED: 11:07 am EDT October 26, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A rare document signed by Abraham Lincoln calling on states to approve a slavery amendment has been uncovered at the State Archives and is on display in downtown Raleigh.

In early 1861, Congress proposed a 13th amendment to the Constitution that would have protected slavery by preventing it from being outlawed in states where it already was allowed. President Lincoln, the man who took office just after the proposal was approved and who eventually freed slaves, sent letters to all states asking them to ratify the amendment.

His letter to North Carolina's governor is one of just five such letters known to still exist. Lincoln researchers from Illinois found the letter in North Carolina's archives.

"We think it's priceless, but if it were on an open market, it would probably be worth millions of dollars," said Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the state Office of Archives and History.

"To see his autograph and how he touched this paper is a thrill," said Charles Malone, who went downtown Wednesday to view the document.

The proposed amendment quickly faded away as the Civil War broke out. Ironically, the resolution that did become the 13th Amendment after passage by Congress and ratification by the state abolished slavery.

"(This is) the evil twin of the 13th Amendment because this is the 13th amendment that did not pass," said Libba Evans, the secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Although the amendment was never ratified, it also has never died, which is why it's often called the "Ghost Amendment." Lawmakers never put a time limit on the resolution, so states could still vote to protect slavery.

In 1963, some Texas lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to ratify the Ghost Amendment. A movement is under way to get Congress to rescind the proposal altogether.

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Something you will not find in your history books. A letter showing Lincoln willing to make it a law to protect the institution of slavery in states where it was already legal.

Gray Ghost