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Letters to Lincoln.

The Stamp Collecting Report. I'm Lloyd de Vries.

They're called Patriotic envelopes. One type has generic decorations -- the flag, an 
eagle, the White House, and so on. The other type commemorates a specific cause, such 
as the Union Army during the Civil War. These envelopes are bright and colorful, and 
people used them for their mail. The envelopes delivered a message, even before they 
were opened.

Recently, members of the U-S Philatelic Classics Society, people who concentrate on 
older U-S stamps, discovered more than 4 dozen of these Patriotic Envelopes addressed 
to Abraham Lincoln while he was president.

Patriotics addressed to Lincoln before his presidency were known, but not any from 
DURING his time in office.

These Patriotic Envelopes were found among the papers of one of his secretaries, John 
Hay, papers that Hay's heirs donated to Brown University more than 50 years ago.

They provide a fascinating glimpse of the National Mood during the Civil War.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, 
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com. 

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