Lincoln Letter Sets Auction Record

[April 04, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Abraham Lincoln's heartfelt reply to a group of youngsters who asked him to free America's "little slave children" has sold for $3.4 million.

Sotheby's auction house said Thursday that the 1864 letter set a record for a Lincoln manuscript, as well as for any presidential and American manuscript.

It was purchased by an American private collector bidding over the telephone.

Lincoln's hand-penned reply is contained in a letter to a woman who mailed the children's petition from Concord, Mass.

In it, Lincoln says: "Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy."

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[Associated Press]

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