A Letter from a Legend 傳奇總統的親筆信

By Charles Scanlon, BBC Journalist, Americas

Lincoln's letter reads: "Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with Master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln."

媒體英語會帶大家一起學習BBC撰稿人在報導世界大事時常用到的單字和片語

Background:美國前總統林肯多年前寫給一名男孩的書信以6萬美元的高價（41萬人民幣）在美國售出。當這名八歲男孩告訴同學他見到了總統時，不僅沒人相信而且他還受到眾人的一陣譏諷。

Abraham Lincoln was facing the biggest crisis in American history. The Southern states had seceded from the Union and civil war was imminent.

But shortly after his inauguration in 1861 he still found time to write to a distressed eight year-old boy. George Patton had met the newly-nominated candidate the year before with his journalist father but he faced howls of disbelief when he told his classmates.

A teacher wrote to the White House and back came the terse four-line reply confirming the meeting.

Abraham Lincoln set the ideal for the presidency that all his successors have aspired to. The brief letter feeds the legend of the man and the austere gentility for which he was renowned.