Autograph Album Signed by Abraham Lincoln and His Cabinet.

LINCOLN, Abraham.

Item Number: 91488

Exceptionally rare finely bound autograph album signed by the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln as well as his cabinet and 225 senators, representatives, and delegates of the 37th Congress, 1861-1863. Octavo, bound in full morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, with the name “Lizzie F. Harlow” gilt on the front panel. Singed by Abraham Lincoln on the first page of the album, “Yours truly, Abraham Lincoln.” Additionally signed by William H. Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, M. Blair, Edward Bates, J. P. Usher and S. P. Chase. Collected between the years of 1862 and 1863 by James McCain, a young patent officer at the United States Patent Office. McCain presented the custom-bound album to his sweetheart, Lizzie F. Harlow, who, despite not marrying the young clerk, passed it down to her heirs. In near fine condition. An exceptional rarity with noted provenance.

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the United States through its Civil War, and in doing so preserved the Union of the United States of America, abolished slavery, and strengthened the federal government. Lincoln began constructing his cabinet on election night and sought to create a cabinet that would unite the Republican party. His eventual cabinet would include his primary rivals for the Republican nomination and although his appointees held differing views on economic issues all were opposed to the expansion of slavery into the territories of the United States. The most senior cabinet post of Secretary of State was appointed to William Seward who had recently failed to win the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and Lincoln's choice for Secretary of the Treasury was Ohio Senator Salmon P. Chase, Seward's primary political rival and the leader of a radical faction of the Republican party that sought the immediate abolition of slavery.