Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address and was given a cane as a gift. That stick will be auctioned next week.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech was a short set of remarks after the main speech of the day lasting over 2 hours. Union politicians and soldiers were gathered on November 19, 1863 to dedicate a cemetery to the around 3,000 Union soldiers who died in the bloody, defining battle of the United States Civil War from July 1 to 3, 1863.
Lincoln’s to-the-point words have become legendary, opening: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Lincoln at Gettysburg. He’s seated, without a hat, just to the left of centre.
Everyone there knew it was a historic day, and someone marked it with a gift to the Union president. They gave Lincoln a stick taken from the battlefield to use as a cane.
Lincoln had no use for a walking stick, so immediately passed it to Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, who added the inscribed brass head.
Don Ackerman, Heritage Auction’s Managing Director of Political Americana, says: “Basically Stanton was documenting that this was a battlefield relic and that it was given to him by Lincoln. So with the Gettysburg Address, the Battle of Gettysburg, it just hits all the high marks.”
Lincoln’s compelling life story and personality, as well as his deeply impactful leadership, and ultimately his murder, make him the most collectible of American presidents.
Items closely associated with Lincoln and key moments in his life – and especially the moment of his death – are extremely valuable.
In May 2025 a pair of gloves he wore to Ford’s Theatre on the night he was killed, complete with blood stains, made over $1.5 million. A personally handwritten copy of the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery in the US sold for $3.7 million in 2010.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg cane will be sold at Heritage Auctions’ Americana & Political Signature Auction on October 24 – 25.
