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Signed transmittal letter, March 16, 1861, from Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis

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@ North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Description

Signed transmittal letter, March 16, 1861, from Abraham Lincoln to Governor John W. Ellis, with the original Thirteenth Amendment, and Secretary Wm. H. Seward transmittal document. The cover letter signed by Lincoln accompanied a copy of the originally proposed Thirteenth Amendment that was approved by the United States Congress on March 2, 1861. This earlier proposed Thirteenth Amendment was an effort at a compromise to head off impending civil war. This proposed amendment provided that “no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of the said State.” Included with the cover letter and proposed amendment was also a transmittal statement of document’s authenticity signed by Secretary of State William H. Seward, March 13, 1861. These documents and their importance and rarity were brought to the attention of the State Archivist of North Carolina in October 2006, by representatives of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln (co-project of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the University of Illinois-Springfield) on a visit to the North Carolina State Archives during their survey of Lincoln documents in the various American states. These documents were originally filed in the Governor John W. Ellis Papers [G.P.150, folder “March 1861”]. They were transferred to the Vault Collection on April 20, 2007. The cover letter is signed by President Abraham Lincoln using his full name “Abraham...
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Record Contributed By

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Record Harvested From

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center