News - National
Philly dealer selling letter Lincoln wrote to boy
Posted: Nov 17, 2009 5:02 PM by Associated Press
A letter President Abraham Lincoln wrote to a boy whose friends didn't believe he had met the commander in chief is being sold in Philadelphia.
Lincoln sent the letter from the White House to 8-year-old George Patten two weeks after his March 1861 inauguration. The youngster had been mocked by classmates for saying he'd met the 16th president with his father, a journalist. His teacher wrote Lincoln to uncover the truth. Instead, the president wrote to the boy: "Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln."
The Raab Collection is offering the letter for $60,000. Vice President Nathan Raab says it's the only known surviving Lincoln letter written to a child.
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