Abraham Lincoln Medallion / SOLD

Lincoln Medallion - Inventory Number: POL 060 / SOLD

Ephemera unsigned. 3-inch diameter bronze medallion with bust engraving of Lincoln on front. Engraved on the reverse: “1809 - 1909 on a banner at the top, WITH MALICE / TOWARD NONE / WITH CHARITY / FOR ALL at right and above an eagle and shield within a small GAR wreath, to the left are large branches of palmetto and laurel with a ribbon reading E · PLURIBUS / UNUM". The engraving on the reverse of this medal is from the last sentence of Lincoln's second inaugural address: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Future American president Lincoln (1809-1865, near Hodgenville, Kentucky), on the advice of Whig legislator (and future law partner) John Todd Stuart, became a lawyer in 1836. In 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfield, where he became a partner in Stuart's law firm. From 1834 until he left for Washington, D.C. as President-elect, Lincoln's law offices were located above Seth Tinsley's store in Springfield. Lincoln, who became one of the most respected and successful lawyers in Illinois, handled some 5,100 cases and appeared before the Illinois State Supreme Court over 400 times over his 23-year legal career, which also included a long association (1844-1865) with another partner, William Henry Herndon. Before being elected President, Lincoln also served in the Illinois State Legislature (1834-1841) and one term (1847-1849) as a U.S. Congressman. He's best known, of course, as the 16th president of the United States (1861-1865), and especially as the Union's president during the Civil War (1861-1865) and writer of the Emancipation Proclamation. He was actively involved in military planning, swapping generals to find an aggressive commander of the Union army. Though his involvement cost the Union an early loss at the First Battle of Bull Run, his policies of blockading and overwhelming the Confederate army with superior numbers would eventually win the day. His primary objective was to reunite the United States, not end slavery. However, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 in response to rising abolition feelings in the Union. He was shot while sitting in Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1965, only a few months after being sworn in for his second term as president and only two days after the Confederate Army's official surrender, and died the next day. He was succeeded by vice-president Andrew Johnson. In outstanding condition. 

This mint condition three-inch bronze medallion was designed for the Grand Army of the Republic by for the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It includes a bust engraving of Lincoln - similar to that on modern pennies - and that famous line from his second inaugural address: "With malice toward none, with charity for all".

Inventory Number: POL 060 / SOLD