A presidential order signed by Abraham Lincoln four days before he was assassinated has been found in an old writing desk and is now being sold for $45,000 in Ardmore by the Raab Collection, writes Cris Barrish for WHYY.

The order, dated April 11, 1865, names anti-slavery proponent Allen M. Gaabe linolnngewere to a federal Treasury auditing post. Experts believe the order shows the direction the Lincoln Administration likely would have gone had Lincoln lived.

“Obviously, this was an exciting period for him, for the country, because the war appeared to be coming to an end and, in fact, was coming to an end,” said Nathan Raab, president of the Raab Collection.

It was signed two days after Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union forces in Virginia.

The original letter was found by a woman from the upper Midwest sorting through her late husband’s old writing desk.

A copy of Gangewere’s appointment is in the National Archives.

Gangewere founded the National Colored Home in Washington, D.C. to help destitute fugitive slaves. He also ran an anti-slavery weekly newspaper in Columbus, Ohio.

He later was private secretary to Ohio Gov. Salmon Chase, Lincoln’s Treasury secretary during the war.

Find out more about the significance of this Lincoln presidential order at WHYY.