Lincoln is most famously remembered as the President who saved the Union by leading the government to victory in the Civil War. He is also the president who ended slavery across the United States, having famously announced the liberation of all enslaved people in the Confederacy through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. However, while this executive order instantly changed the fates of 3.5 million slaves, it would be the 13th Amendment that enshrined this into the Constitution.

The amendment abolished slavery in the United States, but starting from its drafting and ratification by a majority of the states in the Union, it took just over three years. On 26 June, a commemorative copy of the original 13th Amendment that was passed in Congress will be offered at Sotheby’s Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana Sale in New York, with an estimate between US$8 and 12 million.

On this document is Lincoln’s signature, along with the Vice President's, Speaker of the House’s, and 151 legislators, making this one of only 15 copies with the President’s signature. Should the document sell, it will easily become the most expensive document and piece of memorabilia from Lincoln to ever be sold at auction. The prior Lincoln-related document record was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation sold by Sotheby’s in 2010 for US$3.8 million.

Lot 27 | Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and members of the United States Congress | Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Circa 1865
42.4 x 39 cm
Provenance:

• Probably Mrs. F. M. Taylor, Colorado Springs (recorded by Justin Turner, as a "Colorado Collector," in 1954)
• The Roy P. Crocker Lincoln National Savings and Loan Collection (Sotheby’s New York, 28 November 1979, lot 216)
• Malcolm Forbes (Christie’s New York, 27 March 2002, lot 95)
• Private collector
• Current private collector (acquired, 2007, through the offices of Seth Kaller)

Estimate: US$8,000,000-12,000,000

Auction House: Sotheby's New York
Sale: Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 1
Date and Time: 26 June 2025 | 10:00 am (New York Local Time)
Number of Lots: 27

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It was rare for presidents to sign constitutional amendments, as it is not legally required by the Constitution and could possibly be seen as a bit of executive overreach into the legislative branch. Regardless of Lincoln’s signing of the amendment banning slavery, it was a key symbolic move that both mirrored and countered his predecessor, James Buchanan’s, signing of the proposed amendment, which would have protected the rights of slaveholders.

After Lincoln signed the official copy on 1 February 1865, he would sign 15 commemorative copies, which exist to celebrate major milestones and events. According to an American document authenticator, there are 5 types of the 13th Amendment signed by Lincoln. These different types are identified by who signed them, along with the president, with this lot being of the fifth and most common variety, the Congressional type, signed by various legislators.

This version is currently in private hands but was once part of two notable collections. Its second recorded owner was Roy P. Crocker, a Los Angeles lawyer who developed a large collection of Lincoln memorabilia over the years, which was sold in a major sale by Sotheby’s in 1979. Items included in the sale include Lincoln’s beaver skin hat, a pen holder set, and the opera glasses that he used in the Ford Theatre the night he was assassinated.

The third known, and most notable, owner was Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine. Unlike Crocker, who was a dedicated Lincoln collector, Forbes’ collection habits were idiosyncratic and eclectic. While a large collector of art pieces and historical documents, such as this lot, Forbes also added to his collection motorcycles and aircraft, with elements of his collection being sold by Christie’s up until 2010; this lot was sold in 2002.

The signatures of the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President Lincoln, whose signatures is on the bottom right

Left: The Emancipation Proclamation | Right: The 13th Amendment | Both are on offer with Sotheby's New York
 

During the midst of the US Civil War, Lincoln would draft a proclamation that emancipated the slaves of all ten states that rebelled during the conflict. The Emancipation Proclamation was declared five days after the Battle of Antietam, where the Union victory gave them the political capital and stage to declare that all slaves be freed.

However, the proclamation was made during wartime and wartime powers, meaning that there were fears that in the postwar courts, the executive order, and thus the abolition of slavery, could not be accomplished. To make abolition legally ironclad, it was decided that a constitutional amendment was needed to enshrine the abolition of slavery in a non-contestable way; as such, the drafting of the 13th Amendment began in 1862.

Such a goal of resolving the issue of slavery was key in Lincoln’s political position; he was consistently vocal against the practice, even stating in a letter in 1855 to his friend that “Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it, 'all men are created equal, except Negroes.”

Lincoln’s beliefs became even more punctuated after the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the Supreme Court struck down the rights of African Americans and limitations on the territorial footprint of slavery. On that matter Lincoln stated, “There is no reason at all furnished why the Negro is not entitled to…'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'…In the right to eat the bread…which his own hand earns, he is my own equal…and the equal of every living man.”

Lincoln in 1860, before he was president, but when he was already a strong advocate against slavery
 

Lincoln’s election in 1860 was considered one of the final straws for southern slave states, which felt threatened by the abolitionist’s election. Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861, and the country was in the Civil War by mid-April. Throughout the conflict, the Union government under Lincoln made incremental steps to dismantle slavery where they could, but many of these were specific acts only usable in limited situations.

Such acts included the Emancipation Proclamation, declared after the Union’s victory at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. The executive order, the document declared that all slaves held in rebelling states were free and that crossing over into Union lines guaranteed liberation. What followed was a more permanent solution in the form of a constitutional amendment. What is interesting is that Lincoln wanted a gradual elimination of slavery that would’ve lasted until 1900. However, what was eventually proposed was far more succinct and was penned by Senator Lyman Trumbull.

While Trumbull, who also engineered the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment, was the key author of the draft, it was Lincoln’s conviction and political acumen that were needed to get the votes in Congress to pass the bill, especially because in 1864, the nation was heading to another election. This was especially necessary as many, before the election, found the amendment to be politically dangerous and toxic, and its fate could not be certain.

In the convention leading up to Lincoln’s nomination, Lincoln would reaffirm his views and support for the amendment to abolish slavery, reading in his speech, “That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this Rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, hostile to the principles of Republican Government, justice and the National safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic.”

The preamble and text of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery
 

Victory for  Lincoln in the election seemed to dissipate many of the fears surrounding the passing of the 13th Amendment. The original cohort of enthusiastic legislators seeking to pass the bill saw their ranks swell, especially as many legislators who lost their seats in the 1864 election had nothing to lose by supporting the amendment.

Public support had also rallied behind the effort to abolish slavery in the North, and thus it seemed to become a matter of when it would be passed, rather than if. This was echoed by Lincoln, who in his December 1864 State of the Union Address said, “There is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their action. And as it is to so go, at all events, may we not agree that the sooner the better?”

After a hard-fought period to secure the necessary votes to pass the amendment ending slavery, during which Lincoln would expend much political capital and patronage, the amendment to the Constitution was passed. It was not a landslide victory by any margin. Originally planned for mid-January, the vote had been delayed since support for it was five votes short. Eventually, when the vote took place, it was deemed that 117 votes were needed to pass it, and Lincoln and his supporters for abolition received 119.

Celebrations in Congress following  the passing of the 13th Amendment, published in Harper's Weekly

The signatures of the Senators (on the top) and the Representatives (on the bottom) who signed the 13th Amendment
 

As for the origins of this lot, after the whole process of passing the amendment, various commemorative copies of it were printed to be signed by key figures and collected. This one copy of the amendment contains 154 signatures on it, starting with Lincoln’s. Interestingly enough, presidents aren’t required to sign constitutional amendments, but for whatever reason, he did. This does not include the official copy, which is only one of 15 copies of the amendment that includes Lincoln’s signatures.

Other signatures include Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who was actually at the tail end of his time as vice president, as in the prior election, Lincoln chose to run with a different candidate, Andrew Johnson, making this one of the last items Hamlin signed in an official capacity. Other important signatures include Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, Secretary of the Senate John W. Forney, and Clerk of the House of Representatives Edward McPherson.

However, what stands out is the number of legislators who signed the document, a total of 151, 37 from the Senate and 114 from the House of Representatives, 5 shy of all House members who voted for the document. In total, this was 96% of all of the members of both houses of Congress who supported the 13th Amendment, and it should be noted that no commemorative copy of the document exists with 100% signatures from all those who voted for it.