A letter written by President Abraham Lincoln sells for record 3.4 million
dollars (USD) in what was otherwise a lacklustre auction of historic American
manuscripts at Sotheby's auction house in New York.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA (APRIL 3, 2008) (REUTERS)

A letter written by former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln about
slavery became the most  expensive American manuscript ever sold at auction
when it fetched a record price of 3.4 million U.S. dollar at Sotheby's in New
York on Thursday (April 3).
  The 1864 signed letter was part of a sale titled "Presidential and
Other American Manuscripts from the Dr. Robert Small Trust" that
comprised 111 lots at Sotheby's. It provided insight into both the public and
private sides of several U.S. presidents.
  The Lincoln letter, which was estimated between 3 and 5 million USD,
answered a petition to free enslaved children. The auction house said it was
Lincoln's most personal and powerful statement on God, slavery and
emancipation.
  "It was a wonderful letter, deserved a wonderful price," said
Selby Kiffer, vice president of books and manuscripts at Sotheby's.
"There was some competitive bidding for it and it's a record not only for
Lincoln, but for any American President and any American manuscript, so we're
thrilled."
  Other highlights of the sale included Lincoln's signature on a leaf taken
from the 1863 Dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered
what is regarded as his most famous speech that began "Four score and
seven years ago." It sold for 937,000 U.S. dollars, including the buyer's
commission.
  But many of the other higher priced items did not reach the required
selling price, including a letter by former U.S. President John Quincy Adams
that condemned South Carolina's call for nullification. It was estimated to
fetch between 250,000 to 350,000 USD.
  An autographed Lincoln letter, valued between 500,000 and 800,000 USD,
received a highest bid of only 350,000 dollars and did not sell.
  "The sale was a little odd in that the medium priced material was
doing quite well and some of the other, more valuable items were
passing," said Kiffer, adding Lincoln's letter on freeing slave children
and the Gettysburg autograph sold because they were in "a league by
themselves."
   Of the 110 lots offered in the sale, 40 failed to find buyers.