Signed American Documents from the Raab Collection

Many presidents go on to be notable statesmen in the years after they leave office. Few go on to be a fireman. James K. Polk was an exception. After he returned to Nashville from his years in office, he was selected as an honorary member of Capital Hill Fire Company No. 4. However, in this response from the ex-President, Polk writes, “it gives me great pleasure to accept the honor conferred; and should the occasion for it occur, it will give me equal pleasure to be a working, as well as an honorary member of the Company.” Sadly, Polk never got the opportunity to put out a fire. This letter was written on May 28, 1849, and other than one written on May 29, no later letters from Polk are known. He became seriously ill on June 4, and died on June 15. Item 23. $10,000.

Most people may think of America's founders as a straitlaced bunch, certainly not the type who would have approved of gambling. Here is a bit of contradictory evidence. Item 1 is a lottery ticket from the Mountain Road Lottery, signed by none other than the father of his country himself, George Washington. The ticket is dated 1768. Washington and Captain Thomas Bullitt promoted this lottery to raise funds for a road through the Allegheny Mountains to the resort area now known as Hot Springs, Virginia. The lottery ended up a failure, but Bullitt went ahead with the plan to build a resort anyway. Item 1. $9,500.

Item 40 is a letter from Former President Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Lindbergh, dated 1914. 1914? Lindy was just 12 years old at the time, hardly a famous aviator yet. It turns out that Charles Lindbergh was also his father's name. Charles Sr. was a congressman from Minnesota, serving from 1907-1917, and a strong ally of Roosevelt. He was a progressive like Roosevelt, even a radical, a vehement opponent of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was also, like his son, anti-war when war was looming, in his case the First, rather than the Second, World War. Roosevelt heaps praise on the Congressman, noting his support for “concrete measures for the advancement of social and industrial justice.” Lindberg was born in Sweden as Carl Mansson, but his name was changed after his father abandoned his wife and spirited his son off to America. Were it not for this change, Lucky Lindy's name would have been – yes – Charles Mansson. $7,000.

Item 24 is a letter written by Martin Luther King on January 16, 1964. He had only just been named Time Magazine's Man of the Year a few weeks earlier, and King was responding to a complementary letter he had received from a Frank G. Butler. While accepting Butler's kind thoughts, King states, “However, I must say that I sincerely feel that this particular recognition is not an honor to be enjoyed by me personally, but rather a tribute to the entire civil rights struggle and the millions of gallant people all over the nation working so untiringly to bring the American dream to reality.” $25,000.

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