?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(ABRAHAM LINCOLN.) Thomas H. Nelson. An American envoy's letter explaining the reaction to the assassination in Chile. Autograph Letter Signed to "my dear Jones." 3 pages, 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, on one folding sheet; folds, minimal wear. Santiago de Chile, 1 June 1865
Transcontinental telegraph lines had not yet reached Chile, so word of the assassination did not reach American envoy Thomas Henry Nelson for several weeks. He was in Valparaiso when a steamer arrived in port bearing the news. Here he explains the scene to a friend: "We are all overwhelmed with grief. I can scarcely yet grasp or realize it. It comes to me with all the force of a personal loss. . . . The whole city is clad in mourning. . . . Strong men wandered about the streets weeping like children, and foreigners, unable even to speak our language, manifested a grief almost as deep as our own. . . . Several, overcome by their emotion, sat down upon the ground and wept like children. . . . The name and fame of Lincoln belong not alone to us, but to mankind, and will grow brighter and greater with the coming centuries."
