Letter by Lincoln, Lost for Decades, Is Returned

National Archives - President Lincoln wrote the letter five days before the Gettysburg Address.























A letter Lincoln wrote in 1863 is back with the National Archives, nearly 70 years after it was torn from its original volume.















The letter, written to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, was donated to the archives by Lawrence M. Cutler, a private collector from Arizona who bought it a few years ago.

Lincoln wrote the letter on Nov. 14, 1863 — five days before the Gettysburg Address — on behalf of Robert Stevens, the recently fired head of the United States Mint in San Francisco. The president directed Mr. Chase to allow Mr. Stevens, who was the son-in-law of a deceased senator and friend of Lincoln’s, to either have a copy of or be allowed to examine the files explaining why he was fired.