E 453 .B98 Copy 2 SALT LAIvK CITY, LTAII ORIGINAL LINCOLN PROCLAMATION BURNED. Reprinted irom i^ilwaukee, IVit , Sfntlnal, of Apn\ 3. 1911. / If John E. Burton writes as follows to the Editor of the Sentinel: ' "Seeing the statement in your issue of the other day that, at the fire in Albany which destroyed part of the state capitol buikl- ing, the original proclamation of emancipation was among the his- toric documents saved, I ask space to correct the same, as the original proclamation of emancipation does not exist, a fact not generally known. The document in the New York capitol building was Lincoln's 100 day notice or warning to the rebel authorities that if during that period from Sept. 22, 1862, to Jan. 1. 1863, they w'ould lay down their arms, the union would remain as before, but if on Jan. 1, 1863, they still remained armed and defying the au- thority of the United States, he would on that day issue a procla- mation of emancipation and evoke the power of the army and navy of the United States to enforce the emancipation of all slaves in the states and parts of states still in rebellion and which were named in the 100 days' notice. "On Jan. 1, 1863, the south still being in open rebellion, Lin- coln issued his proclamation declaring the slaves free and pledged the support of the army and navy for its enforcement. "This was the original emancipation proclamation. Lincoln signed it in full — 'Abraham Lincoln,' and not 'A. Lincoln,' as he usually signed letters and lesser documents — and then presented it to the ladies at the head of the Christian commission and told them to dispose of it as they thought best for the benefit of the vv'ounded union soldiers. "They sold the document publicly and it was purchased by George F. Ryan of Chicago for $3,500 and was loaned by him to some public entertainment committee in 1871, and it was entirely destroyed on Oct. 8, 1871, in the great f^re. "The 100 day notice of warning proclamation issued by Lin- coln on Sept. 22, 1862, was also presented by him to the Christian commission for the benefit of our wounded soldiers, and that docu- ■'■A / ment was sold in a raffle to Gerrit Smith of Petersboro, N. Y;Cf who bought 1,000 tickets at $1 each and drew it by lot. Later the old philanthropist w/rote a prominent friend that he did not feel that a private individual should own so priceless a document and offered it to the state of New York. The legislature of New York voted to secure it and paid Gerrit Smith the same sum it had cost him, $1,000. ''After the original emancipation proclamation was burned, few people knew of the fact for many years ; but when it became known great interest was aroused as to whether Lincoln ever made a duplicate of it and many years after and in an entirely unexpected channel it was discovered that he had. ■^ if. if. "In the closing years of the war Charles Godfrey Leland, the poet and historian, who had written the 'Life of Lincoln and the Downfall of American Slavery,' a w)ork which endeared him to Mr. Lincoln, called at the White House, and Lincoln, to compli- ment his author friend, made a second copy of the proclamation of emancipation on vellum w^ater marked Whatman paper, of the \\ater mark date, 1861, and signed it as he had the first document in full, 'Abraham Lincoln,' and had William H. Seward counter- sign it and also had his private secretary, John G. Nicolay, verify the signature in ink. "Years afterward, in London, where Charles Godfrey Leland spent his later years, he, like many another author, needed money and hypothecated his treasures with one James Tregaskis, a book seller at High Holborn street, London. Some twenty-five years afterward the heirs of Charles Godfrey Leland allowed the treas- ure to be sold. "A large book shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, owned and man- aged by the Hon. Richard B. Shepard, as 'Shepard Book Company,* wrote me he could sell me a Lincoln proclamation signed in ink for a given sum. I answered him that I confined myself to books and pamphlets on Lincoln and could not afford to enter the auto- graph field of Lincolniana. I'our months later C. P. Farrell, brother-in-law of Rol)ert G. Ingersoll wrote me he had a well-to-do client who had entered the happy and historic pastime of collecting Lincoln autograph documents and to be on the lookout as he Vv'ould pay $75 for any proclamation signed in ink by Lincoln. I then dropped a line to my friend Shepard and asked him if it was too late to get the signed proclamation of Lincoln's he had once offered me and which I refused. He wrote back that he did not know, but would ask his London agent, at once, and a month later I received, in a metal cylinder, a fine old document direct from . Tregaskis in London, with the option to buy. I opened it and when I saw what it wias I did not believe it possible or true and my first impression was that Shepard had been deceived, llow- ^ever, as I had many ink signatures of Lincoln's I could not doubt its genuineness. I immediately took it to the First National Bank aad showed my prize to Frank liigelow. He asked me if I was sure it was genuine and I told him yes, but that I did not have funds enough to secure it and the other treasures offered of Lin- coln's. He asked me how much I needed to make sure of them and I told him $300. He took a little, small checkbook from his inside coat pocket and promptly wrote me a check for the $300 and told me not to let so rare a thing get away from Milwaukee, as congress would some day want it. I secured it at once and own it still and will long remember the man who so unselfishly helped me to secure it. '1 then wrote to John Hay at Washington, who was secretary of state under Roosevelt, and asked him if he ever remembered a circumstance of Mr. Lincoln's signing a second copy of the emancipation proclamation. He wrote that he did not, but that Mr. Lincoln did many queer things in his time, but he could not pass on such an important document without seeing it. I at once packed it securely and put $2,000 value on the package and sent it by express to Secretary Hay at Washington for examina- tion. He received it, examined it and wrote me promptly that the document was genuine beyond a question and that Miss Nic- olay, daughter of his old associate, John G. Nicolay, was in Wash- ington and would also verify the signatures. Mr. Hay then wrote me the facts regarding the original and its owner and its fate of hciving been burned in the fire of 187L He also wrote me that Lincoln had done the same thing for Mr. Seward and had pre- pared and signed a perfect duplicate, same as mine, which was still in the state department. My copy is in a fireproof safe, but I often feel that it is not well that a private citizen should possess such a document, yet my reverence for Lincoln as the man of men in all the history of the world justifies me in holding it, but it always seems as if I stood on holy ground every time I take it in my hands and look at the signature of the man who by that act made free a race of 4,000,000 people. "God bless Abraham Lincoln and his memory forever. It is worth more to American citizenship than any other influence in existence and is strong enough to save our nation from wrong doing or from danger." 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