Letter Lincoln jotted on discovered, verified

A new document related to Abraham Lincoln has been verified by a program administered by Springfield's Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

It's a letter of introduction for a journalist written by clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. It includes a short note jotted by Lincoln saying he can vouch for Beecher's sound judgment.

The project that helped locate and identify the document is the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. It's a long-term project seeking to find and publish still-existing Lincoln documents.

A Melbourne, Australia, researcher said he thought he'd once seen a Lincoln-related letter in Switzerland. A digital copy was eventually sent to Springfield.

The letter of introduction was for Emilie Jane Merriman before she travelled to Europe. In 1865, she covered Lincoln's second inaugural ball for the New York Times.