Abraham Lincoln letter to schoolboy goes on sale
A handwritten letter by former American President Abraham Lincoln to a small boy almost 150 years ago is set for the market with an asking price of $60,000 (£36,000) in Philadelphia.
George Patten, the schoolboy in this story, had accompanied his journalist father when both were introduced to the commander-in-chief at the time.
Abraham Lincoln wrote to the eight-year-old in 1861 after his disbelieving classmates mocked him. The signed letter confirms the 16th US president did meet with the boy and was sent two weeks following the presidential inauguration.
The note reads: “Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln.”
Patten’s teacher had previously written to Lincoln, after which the president put pen to paper.
Vice-president of the Raab Collection Nathan Raab said there are no other known letters authored by Lincoln to a child. The Raab Collection is selling the letter.
Several events have been presented across America this year to celebrate the bicentenary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
Born on February 12, 1809, Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until April 15, 1865, the day of his assassination. Lincoln is celebrated today because of his involvement in the greatest internal crisis in US history, the American Civil War, thus preserving the Union and putting an end to slavery.