Lincoln letter sells for 3.4 million dollars in New York

AFP, April, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — A letter written by late US president Abraham Lincoln in response to a children's petition to end slavery sold for a record 3.4 million dollars at auction in New York on Thursday.

The letter, an emotional response to a "Children's Petition to the president asking him to free all the little slave children in this country," dates from 1864 and was the highlight of a sale of historical American manuscripts.

The top lot, which was bought by an anonymous US buyer bidding by phone, set a record price for a US manuscript at auction.

"Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy," Lincoln wrote in the letter.

"While I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, ...