[LINCOLN] The Railsplitter! 1860 Letter w/ Lincoln, Abolition, & Texas Content

About Auction

Live

Day 2: Early & Historic Americana

By Fleischer's Auctions

Oct 10, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-10-10 09:00:00 2025-10-10 09:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Day 2: Early & Historic Americana https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/fleischers-auctions/day-2-early-historic-americana-19250
Day one of Fleischer's 2025 Fall Premier auction includes early American artifacts, documents, signatures, ephemera, and weaponry. Rare material relating to African American history is featured, as well as fine examples of antique photography. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com

View Full Catalog (356)

• Lot Description

  Note: Please see Day 3 (October 11) of the sale that features rare material relating to the Gettysburg Address.

   

  Autograph letter signed by Levi Bird Duff. Pittsburgh, [Pennsylvania], 5 August 1860. 4 pages, 8vo. 

   

  An interesting political letter written by Pittsburgh lawyer and future Union officer, Levi Bird Duff (1837 - 1916). This letter to his younger brother living in Texas, Sardis Tunis Duff (1840 - 1930), was penned shortly after Levi's admittance to the Allegheny Bar Association. He opens with evidently ironic musings on the state of Texas politics: "what a great institution the United States are with James Buchanan at their head, & how much greater will then be when that 'renowned warrior' & 'great statesman' Sam Houston is sent up to Washington by the belligerent State of Texas to take the place of the 'Old Public Functionary,' who is to retire by common consent on the Fourth of March next." He returns to the subject to close his letter, correctly anticipating the Texas results in November: "It is now said that Sam Houston is declining & that his state will go for Breckinridge." 

   

  He continues with a lengthy description of Lincoln as the Republican candidate in the upcoming presidential election: "Hearabouts the abolition Rail-splitters threaten to ride Lincoln to Washington on a rail which he made in Macon County, Illinois, thirty years ago. Won't this be a righteous retribution for the indulgence of his rail-mauling propensity! Men have often been treated to a ride on a rail but I have never heard of a man being tortured by one of his own manufacture. Perhaps it will not come to pass in this case; but they make fierce threats & low boasts up this way of making Lincoln the victim of his own rail. The riding is to take place in November next. We want our Southern brethren to come up & aid us to ride this man Lincoln on his own rail, but they demure & say it shan't be done & that if, contrary to their orders, it should be done, they will dissolve the Union. Herein, we think our Southern brethren are a little inconsistent. For should the same Lincoln be foolish enough to visit his native place down in Hardin County, Kentucky, how the inhabitants 'round about' would long for an Illinois rail to give him a ride. Yet they won't come up here & help us to do it. They want to do all the rail-riding themselves. We wish to partake of the fun & they object. Our fellows, notwithstanding these protests, are making the 'necessary preparation' for the ride & I have no doubt it will take place next November as I before said."

   

  Lincoln was given the sobriquet "Railsplitter" at the Illinois Republican Convention in May 1860, intended to evoke his frontier and prairie youth. Relatives of Lincoln's mother procured a split-rail fence that was supposedly built by Lincoln in 1830, which was received by the crowd with raucous applause. 

   

  Before closing, he asks his brother about the state of slavery in Texas: "But I must drop this subject for the present to ask you how Texas is getting along. Wonderful reports have reached us that the Abolitionist[s] are burning up the State & doing many other things. I cannot recollect them all just now. How is this? Give me some information respecting these things if you can. 

   

  Levi Bird Duff was a lawyer who was admitted into the Allegheny Bar Association in April 1860 and worked in Pittsburgh. Just a year later, he would enlist, weeks after the start of the war, into Company A of the 9th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, later redesignated the 38th Pennsylvania Infantry. In February 1862, he was promoted to Captain and transferred to Company D of the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry.  He was promoted swiftly, from to Major to Lieutenant Colonel. He led his troops in over twenty battles, including Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. He survived bullet wounds through his right lung (Fair Oaks, 31 May 1862) and right thigh (Petersburg, 18 June 1864), leading to a necessary amputation, which led to his honorable discharge in 1864. 

   

  Duff returned to his law practice in Pittsburgh and his wife, Harriet Nixon Duff, whom he married during the war and exchanged dozens of letters with. His correspondence is published in the book To Petersburg with the Army of the Potomac, edited by Jonathan F. Helmreich. 

   

  [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]

  Condition

  Request Condition Report

  Two separate sheets, not a bifolium. Short separations along old folds. Some brown stains. 

• Shipping Info

  • SHIPPING PROTOCOL AND INSURANCE

    All packages valued at over $250 are shipped with a signature required upon delivery. All packages handled and shipped in-house by Fleischer’s Auctions are not insured unless insurance is requested. Successful bidders who would like their packages insured are responsible for notifying us that this is the case and are responsible for paying the cost of insurance

• Payment & Auction Policies

  • Available payment options

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
• Buyer's Premium
  • 27.00 %