Lot 1303
1858 $20 Liberty. SEGS graded MS-62. A bold, needle sharp strike. Slightly prooflike with scattered light hairlines due to an old cleaning. The grade is appropiate with the afforementined hairlines.
In 1858 the recently cobbled-together Republican Party named Lincoln its candidate for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Stephen Douglas, author of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The debates Lincoln and Douglas held that fall would receive national attention, and turn Lincoln into a serious contender for the Republican Party's 1860 presidential bid.
In a speech delivered on June 17, 1858, at the close of the Republican State Convention, Lincoln caught the mood of many in the North who were increasingly concerned about the morality of slavery on the one hand, and the need to keep freed slaves from competing with immigrant jobs and so lowering wages in the big northern cities. (Northerners were, in many instances, more bigoted and fearful of the end of slavery than the populace of the South.) Though the "house divided" phrase had been used frequently before as political pabulum for the masses, it was this speech of Lincoln's fiery oratory that gave currency and familiarity to the phrase and the idea.
Estimated Value $5,000 - 6,000.
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| Realized $6,325 |
