In the news today was another letter found by President Lincoln. Unlike email, voicemail, or even glossy direct mail, I’m always struck by the permanence and long term value of the simple handwritten note. Lincoln’s note was found tucked in with other documents just waiting to be discovered and shared again.

July 7, 1863, three days after the Battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, President Abraham Lincoln penned this note to his General-in-Chief Henry Halleck expressing his belief that if Gen. George Meade could follow up his recent victory in Pennsylvania by defeating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army the Civil War would be over.