A rare manuscript bearing the signature of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was sold at an auction on Thursday for $2.2 million.
The signed manuscript bears the last part of Lincoln's second inaugural address which was expected to sell for $1 million. The Dallas-based auction house, Heritage House, held the event in New York City and the buyer of the document wishes to remain anonymous, according to News Max.
Signed manuscript by Pres. Lincoln written just weeks before assassination sells for $2.2M https://t.co/KwSeuh6QsY pic.twitter.com/xp5GuupnSP
— ABC News (@ABC) November 5, 2015
What is written on the document can be found on Lincoln's memorial in Washington D.C.
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in;" it says, according to Canada Journal.
"To bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve, and cherish a just, and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. Abraham Lincoln."
Delivered on March 4, 1865, the speech was written due to the division of the north and south since the Civil War began only one month after Lincoln was seated as president. His speech aimed to reconstruct the whole nation, according to Our Documents. He died six weeks after the speech was delivered, and five days after the Civil War ended.
The Usher family was responsible for the safekeeping of the document for many generations. Rare Manuscripts Director Sandra Palomino of the auction house believes that this particular piece of history is not only rare.
"It's an understatement to call it rare," she said, according to CBS DFW. "Lincoln was not one to just scribble a quote for someone."
