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| The President's pen.1 |
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This Proclamation, considered in all its relations, was one of the mos important public documents ever issued by the hand of man. And as tim<*> passes on, adding century to century of human history, it will be regarded with more and more reverence, as a consummation of the labors of the Fathers of the Republic, who declared the great truth, that “all men are created equal.”
With that belief, the writer has inserted, for the gratification of the present generation and of posterity, the form of the proclamation as it came from the hand of the President, and of the pen with which it was written.
Unlike the preliminary proclamation, it was wonderfully potential.
The loyal portion of the nation was ready for the great act, and hailed it with
1 this is a picture of the pen with which President Lincoln wrote the original draft of his proclamation, a fac-simile of which is given on this and the three pages preceding. The pen was given to Senator Sumner by the President, at the request of the former, and by him presented to the late George Livermore, of Boston, from whom the writer received a photograph and a pencil drawing of it. It is a steel pen, known as the “Washington,” with a common cedar handle — all as plain and unostentatious as the President himself.
the original draft of the proclamation is on four pages of foolscap paper, from which a perfect fac-simile was made for the author of this work by the Government photographer, a few days after it was written, by permission of the President. And under the direction of his private Secretary, John G. Nicolay. In speaking of it to the author the President said:--“I wish to make an explanation of the cause of the last formal paragraphs being in another's hand-writing, and the appearance of a tremulousness of hand when I signed tb paper. It was on New Year's day. Before I had quite completed the proclamation, the people began to call upon me to present the compliments of the season. For two or three hours I shook hands with them, and when I went back to the desk, I could hardly hold a pen in the hand that had been so employed. So I used the hand of my private Secretary in writing the closing paragraphs, having nothing more to add to the proclamation. I there signed it, with a tremulous hand, as you will perceive, made so, not from any agitation caused by the act, but from the reception of my visitors.” the fac-simile here given was made a little smaller than the original, to adapt it to the size of the page, but is perfect in every part. The original was presented by the President to the managers of a Sanitary Fair in Chicago, for the benefit of the soldiers, who sold it to T. B. Bryan, Esq., of that city, for the sum of $3,000.
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