DENVER, PA.- April 15, 1865 is a date that will forever be associated with the assassination of Americas 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. While volumes have been written about shooter John Wilkes Booths cowardly act, and the subsequent effort to save Lincolns life, not as much is commonly known about the hours leading up to the presidents fateful visit to Fords Theatre.
A unique and historically significant item entered in
Morphy Auctions March 15-17 Collectible Firearms & Militaria Auction helps to shed light on Lincolns final hours and his composed state of mind following the Confederacys surrender. It is the gavel that was used at the Richmond, Virginia, chambers of the Congress of the Confederate States of America.
After the fall of Richmond in April 1865, the gavel was retrieved from the disarray of the former Confederate governments venue by Senator Charles Sumner, leader of the anti-slavery Radical Republicans of Massachusetts.
The gavel was symbolic and important to President Lincoln. At around 8pm, prior to departing for Fords Theatre on the night of his assassination, Lincoln discussed the gavels acquisition with two White House visitors: Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax and Massachusetts Congressman George Ashmun.
Mr. Sumner has the gavel of the Confederate Congress, which he got at Richmond to hand to the Secretary of War, but I insisted then that he give it to you. Tell him for me to hand it over, Lincoln instructed Colfax. That direct quote appeared two days after the assassination in an account published in the April 17, 1865 edition of the Boston Daily Evening Traveller.
The gavel offered by Morphys retains its period brown-ink label that reads in handwritten script, Gavel of the Confederate Congress. [It is not to be confused with modern souvenir gavels created from wood obtained from historic buildings.]
This is the actual gavel that was used in the Confederate Congress and retrieved by Senator Sumner, said Dan Morphy, president of Morphy Auctions. Its symbolism was recognized at the time by Lincoln, Colfax and Congressman Ashmun who, in the same conversation with Lincoln, referred to his own preservation of a gavel he had used at the Chicago Convention of 1860, where he had nominated Lincoln for President of the United States.
The gavel will convey to its new owner with an original copy of the April 17, 1865 edition of the Boston Daily Evening Traveller and an 1867 book, Six Months At The White House, that makes reference to it. The conservative pre-auction estimate for the lot is $5,000-$10,000.