1862 Lincoln-signed Document
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GUEST:
It was just passed down through the family. Daniel Goodloe was my great-great-great-uncle. He was nominated to a commission by Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery in the city of Washington, D.C., after Abraham Lincoln signed a bill abolishing slavery.
APPRAISER:
Right, and it comes just before the Emancipation Proclamation. This is April 1862. We see a lot of Lincoln documents on the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, and I've seen a lot in commerce over the years. And you see Lincoln at various phases. You see Lincoln documents as a Springfield lawyer. You see him as a political figure. And then you see him in the fog of war, letters by him castigating generals, supporting generals. You see a lot of little documents about pardoning soldiers who might have deserted. And then you see him on the subject of slavery. And really, nowadays, it's the slavery issue that is crucial and of most significant monetary value in Lincoln documents. And here, Lincoln is appointing a commission, and your relative, he's one of a commission of three persons. It is to do with the compensation that Lincoln gave the slaveholders in D.C. And it ended up that on the commission was a slave dealer. It was typical of Lincoln as a compromising and adroit politician to employ somebody who we would now consider to be rather distasteful as a slave dealer as your ancestor's co-member of this commission. But that was Lincoln. Lincoln's position on slavery itself was always agonizing. I think he's known to have said that he would free all the slaves in order to save the union, but he'd also free none of the slaves to save the union. Primary in his goals during the Civil War was to save the union, but of course, he became the greatest of politicians and presidents of this country because he freed the slaves eventually. This is a magnificent document. It's a secretarial hand, as you can see. That's his regular signature. That's the regular signature of Seward. But this is all done by a routine paid calligrapher. The name of Lincoln is in the text, but it's signed once by him, and that's the magic thing.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
That's... the money is in the fact that it's signed by Lincoln. I think at auction this would bring $50,000 to $75,000. And I don't know whether that's a surprise or not.
GUEST:
It is a surprise.
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