Evening journal., 1911-06-12
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
A Curious Coincidence Of
War Days
By "HOIIand.p

Il suppose that almost everyone who
has ever thought of the matter is Of
the opinion that the original draft of
the Emancipation Proclamation is in
the archives Of the State Department
al Washington. But it-is not there, and
it never was there" So said Frederick
W. Seward. son Of William H. Seward,
and Assistant Secretary of State under
Lincoln, Johnson and Hayes, and now
approaching his eightieth birthday.
Some weeks after Mr.. Lincoln read
the first draft of the Emancipation
Proclamation TO his Cabinet, a short
time after the Battle of Antietam. ."
continued Mr.. Seward, The Christian
Commission, or It may have been the
Sanitary Commission, which. you re-
member, did such magnificent work
for the amelioration of the sufferings
OF the soldiers at the time Of the Civil
War. held a fair al Albany for the pur-
pose of raising funds
My father and / were appealed to
TO send some articles associated with
the war which could be offered for
sale at this fair. IL occurred TO me
Lincoln the original draft of his proc
lamation of emancipation and could
thereby send il to the management of
the fair at Albany, they would be able.
If they put IL up at auction, to get quite
bit of money for it. l suppose that, IL
It were for sale at this time, Il would
fetch hundreds of dollars. /, therefore,
asked President Lincoln If he would
let me have the first draft, and told
him the purpose to which | purposed
to put IT, Lincoln never had any SEN
timental associations with any of his
writings, and was very careless about
keeping manuscript His first draft of
the Emancipation Proclamation held
no sentimental value for him: and he
gladly promised to give II to me-
In the course of a day or two Lin
coin sent me the first draft. II was
all in his own handwriting and con-
tanned, as ! remember. the interlinea-
tion which was suggested by one of
the members of the Cabinet, after he
read the proclamation to the cabinet.
The managers of the fair were de-
lighted to receive this document, which
they did in due. course, and it was ad-
pertised as one of the features of the
fair. The managers decided to dispose
OF II through rattle, and a large num-
Der OF chances were issued; my recol-
lection is that a dollar a chance was
charged. There was great interest
when the drawing took place. But
when the lucky number was read, no
one at first appeared with the vouch-
er or ticket, so that IL was not known
who the holders was.
AT last, the holder of the winning
ticket appeared; and who do you sup
pose IL was? II was none other than
Gerrit Smith, one of the original alb
olitionists, one Of the most earnest of
the anti-slavery men, who might him
self have been nominated for Presi-
dent upon the Prohibition ticket, who
was the candidate Of the Prohibition
lists for governor OF New York, a mem
ber of Congress in the early fifties Of
the last century, and at that time one
of the largest land holders in the
United States Il was regarded as a
most extraordinary coincidence that
this famous abolitionist, this man who
had been the warm friend of John
Brown, Loyalty supporting him in his
Kansas raids and subsequent adven-
lures, should have been the lucky hold
er Of the winning ticket in the rattle
for the first draft of Lincolns Emanci-
patton Proclamation.
Mr.. Smith subsequently gave the
document to the State of New York;
and it is now preserved. think, in the
State Library"
Copyright, 1911, by e. ]. Edwards. All
rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr., Edwards viii tell OF
"The Loan That John jacob Astor
Made without Security"