Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

The Only Known Extant Stock Certificate Owned by Abraham Lincoln

Illinois, August 27, 1852. Partially-printed Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company stock certificate, issued to Abraham Lincoln ("A Lincoln Esq") for six shares. One oblong sheet; 5 1/2 x 8 in. (140 x 203 mm); accomplished in manuscript; circular blindstamp in bottom left; creasing from old folds; light spotting. Signed by treasurer Isaac Gibson and president Harry A. Coit.

"If we complete, or even begin, our road first, it will attract the other, and so become, not merely a local improvement, but a link in one of a great national character..." (Lincoln to the people of Sangamon County, June 1847).

At mid-19th century, the transportation revolution was sweeping the country. Along with canals, the construction of railroads were booming, bringing the far-flung corners of the expanding nation into economic and social contact. This was especially evident in Lincoln's own Illinois. In 1847, the Illinois General Assembly chartered the Alton and Sangamon Railroad to construct a line from Alton, Illinois, to Springfield, Illinois. As a Whig, Lincoln was a champion of internal improvements, and he well understood the benefits, both economic and political, that a rail line could bring to him and the community at large. As a young legislator, he foresaw the national implications of their construction, characterized by him as "a link in a great chain of railroad communication which shall unite Boston and New York with the Mississippi."

As head of a committee to promote subscriptions for the projected railroad--which Lincoln showed faith in by purchasing this stock--in June of 1847 Lincoln wrote an open letter to the people of Sangamon County, asking for their support in the project: "The whole is a matter of pecuniary interest; and the proper question for us is, whether, in reference to the present and the future, and to direct and indirect results, it is our interest to subscribe...at no distant day, a railroad, connecting the Eastern cities with some point on the Mississippi, will surely be built. If we lie by till this be done, it may pass us in such a way as to do us harm rather than good; while, if we complete, or even begin, our road first, it will attract the other, and so become, not merely a local improvement, but a link in one of a great national character, retaining all its local benefits, and superadding many from its general connection." (Basler, I, pp. 396-398)

Construction on the railroad began in 1852, and it was eventually completed in 1853. By 1855, the line connected with the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad, and later merged to form the Chicago, Alton, & St. Louis Railroad. On 21 January 1857, after a reorganization of the company, the Illinois legislature rechartered the railroad as the St. Louis, Alton, & Chicago Railroad. During the 1850s, Lincoln represented the Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company in seven cases in the Sangamon County Circuit Court, and in the appeals of four of them in the Illinois Supreme Court.

Exceedingly rare: the only other known record of a Lincoln-owned stock dates from February 27, 1836, when he bought one share in the Beardstown and Sangamon Canal (the location or survival of that certificate is unknown).

Lot includes: Alton & Sangamon Rail Road Co. printed circular, as well as a partially-printed receipt, both related to Caleb Birchall (1808-1860).

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994