ALS signed “A. Lincoln,” one page both sides, 8 x 10, December 4, 1858, penned at the conclusion of a letter sent to him by a client requesting his legal opinion. Lincoln's response, in full: "You have no lawful right to keep outsiders out by any contrivance whatever. You have the lawful right to prefer one fair creditor to another. In your case, you better mortgage all your real and personal property to your Father and Brother to indemnify them as your sureties. Make two mortgages, one for the real estate, and the other for the personal. In both recite truly the debts for which they are your sureties. Be careful that both mortgages are made acknowledged and recorded according to law. The greater danger of a mistake in this particular is as to the Chattel Mortgage; and, as to it, better refer to the Statute of Chattel Mortgages. I think such a course a better one than any to be affected through a deed of Trust. Any contrivance to give time in a deed of Trust would be held to be fraudulent." Impressively cloth-matted and framed with two engraved plaques, a portrait of Lincoln, and a copy of the front of the letter, to an overall size of 41 x 17.5; the frame backing features a window for viewing the opposite side of the letter. In fine condition. A highly desirable, boldly penned autograph letter from the period that brought him from senatorial defeat in 1858 to presidential success just two years later.
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