The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, February 12, became a celebration at Christie’s as Lincoln’s original, handwritten reelection speech of 1864 sold for $3.44 million and set a new auction record for any American historical document.
The four-page speech was delivered at the White House on November 10, 1864, immediately after his reelection to a second term as president. The unique document, never before offered for sale, was one of a very few Lincoln speech manuscripts not in permanent institutions like the Library of Congress.
The successful anonymous phone bidder claimed the prize after active bidding witnessed by a packed room at the auction house.
Proceeds from the sale of the speech will fund construction of a new addition to the Southworth Library in Dryden, N.Y., and help pay expenses of its operation, maintenance and programming.
Written in Lincoln’s bold, clear hand on four large sheets of paper, the speech was the one Lincoln held in his hands to read that night to a crowd of celebrating supporters on the White House lawn. The precious manuscript remained with Lincoln’s papers until 1916, when Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, presented it to New York Congressman John A. Dwight as thanks for his efforts to secure congressional funding for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Dwight’s widow, in turn, presented it to the Southworth Library Association in 1926.
