QUICK TAKES - Feb. 13, 2009

Christie’s says a handwritten manuscript of an 1864 Abraham Lincoln speech has sold for $3.44 million in New York City, setting a new auction record for any American historical document.

The sale to an anonymous phone bidder on Thursday was just slightly higher than the previous record of $3.40 million set last year, also for an 1864 Lincoln document.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward a new wing for the Southworth Library Assn. in Dryden, N.Y. The document was given to the library in 1926.