Seth Kaller, Inc.

This “Authorized Edition” was printed and signed in June of 1864, to be sold at the Philadelphia Great Central Sanitary Fair. The fairs were created by the United States Sanitary Commission, which worked to raise money for sick and wounded soldiers, provide nursing, uniforms, and supplies, and to improve conditions in military camps. The Philadelphia fair, held in Logan Square from June 7 to 29, was the only event of its kind attended by Lincoln. On June 16, the president’s passionate speech caused such an outpouring of emotions among spectators that officials decided it would be dangerous for him to attend another. The president avowed:

War at its best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration is one of the most terrible....it has carried mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said that the ‘heavens are hung in black.’ Yet the war continues....The Sanitary Commission, with all its benevolent labors...[has] contributed to the comfort and relief of the soldiers....The Commission provides voluntary contributions, given zealously, and earnestly, on top of all the disturbances of business, of all the disorders, of all the taxation, and of all the burdens that the war has imposed upon us, giving proof that the national resources are not at all exhausted, and that the national spirit of patriotism is even firmer and stronger than at the commencement of the war.

When Northerners attended fairs, donated money or goods, or volunteered their time, they were actively aiding the soldiers on the front lines. Autographs of leading Americans were often sold at the fairs. Lincoln donated a signed autograph manuscript of the Gettysburg Address to the New York Fair, which reportedly sold it for $1,000. For Chicago’s Great Northwestern Fair, Lincoln donated his original signed draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, with an accompanying letter stating his “desire to retain the paper, but if it shall contribute to the relief or comfort of the soldiers, that will be better.” It sold for an astounding $3,000. Unfortunately, that manuscript document was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871.

As in all of Lincoln’s presidential documents, he signed this example with his full name instead of the less formal “A Lincoln” that he used on almost all letters and notes. His bold signature stands out from Seward’s and Nicolay’s partly due to his heavier hand and partly because of his use of a steel-tipped pen.

The present dramatic printing is executed on Whatman paper, known since the 1760s for its high quality. Used by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for state papers, Queen Victoria for personal correspondence, Napoleon Bonaparte for his will, and John James Audubon for his spectacular bird prints, it is no surprise that the two prominent Philadelphia men who created this Emancipation Proclamation chose it as the medium for their authorized printing.

Charles Godfrey Leland (1824 - 1903) studied with transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott before attending Princeton. In 1857, he became editor of Graham’s magazine, and in 1862, he took charge of the Continental Monthly, a Boston newspaper dedicated to the Union cause. In that role, Leland claimed to have “coined the term emancipation as a substitute for the disreputable term abolition.” In 1863, he enlisted in a Pennsylvania artillery regiment that fought at Gettysburg.

George Henry Boker (1823 - 1890), the scion of a banking family, also attended Princeton. A founder of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, he was active in raising funds for the Union wounded and aiding families of soldiers and sailors. During the war, Boker published “Tardy George,” a poem critical of General George McClellan, and another titled “The Black Regiment.”

Next Page: An Evolving Stance on Emancipation