Abraham Lincoln Autograph Manuscript – His Transcript of the Alton & Sangamon Railroad Stock Subscription Book (1851)

Eight-page list of stockholders, entirely in Lincoln's hand, prepared as evidence in his first significant railroad case. Lincoln's own name appears among the ninety-one subscribers, one of only two known instances of him purchasing stock, and the only surviving certificate of his known today.

The Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company was chartered in 1847 to run from Alton, through New Berlin, to Springfield. When the route changed in 1850 to bypass certain landholders, shareholder James A. Barret and others refused further payments, claiming breach of contract. Lincoln was retained in 1851 to compel payment, and his transcript of the subscription book, naming Barret and setting out the shareholders' obligations, became the key evidence filed in Sangamon Circuit Court on February 22, 1851.

"A. Lincoln," with six shares for $600, appears among the subscribers, alongside Ninian W. Edwards (Mary Todd Lincoln's brother-in-law), Lincoln's law partner John T. Stuart, and other prominent Springfield residents. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled for Lincoln and the railroad, a decision later cited in twenty-five other cases nationwide and credited with establishing that corporate charters could be altered in the public interest.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Autograph Manuscript Signed, transcript of the "Subscription Book of the Capital Stock of the Alton and Sangamon Rail Road Company," incorporated February 27, 1847, transcribed early 1851, with legal docket "Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company vs. James A. Barret." 8 pp., 6 5/8 x 8 1/4 x 1/4 in. Sold together with Lincoln's original stock certificate for six shares. Inventory #27561.