A $500,000 Fragment

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Abraham Lincoln holographs appearing on the auction block these days are likely to be routine memos from the 16th President -- a postmaster's appointment or some such. Much rarer is a Lincoln paper in his own hand on a key political issue. Sotheby's in New York City announced that in December it will auction off just such a document -- a draft of the pivotal "house divided" speech of 1858. A portion of the text is inscribed across a 12-in. by 7-in. sheet of paper that had been hanging on a wall in the home of a descendant of a Lincoln in-law.

The address, delivered on June 16, when Lincoln was nominated as a senatorial candidate in Illinois to oppose Democrat Stephen Douglas, made headlines. What Lincoln said in Springfield -- that a nation half slave, half free was not permanently tenable -- proclaimed his no-compromise stand.

Now that the handwriting is off the wall, it may bring as much as $500,000 at auction. It may also underscore how important it is to have everything in writing -- a reminder that might have spared Ronald Reagan some embarrassment. In his speech to the Republican National Convention, Reagan misattributed to Lincoln maxims actually written by a 20th century Presbyterian clergyman.