Abraham Lincoln, Esq.: The Legal Career of America's Greatest President

Images

Unless otherwise noted, illustrations are courtesy of the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana. (Above) Lincoln the Lawyer, a painting by Fletcher G. Ransom commissioned by the Chicago and Midland Railroad. (Below) Lincoln the Circuit Rider, a painting by Reynolds Jones commissioned by the Chicago and Midland Railroad. The law office of Logan and Lincoln was on the third floor of this building in Springfield, Illinois, in 1841–1843. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) Lincoln the Circuit Rider, a painting by Louis Bonhajo. (From the collection of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, Lincoln Memorial University) The first photograph of Lincoln—as a lawyer and congressman-elect. (Daguerreotype by H. H. Shepherd, 1846) Lincoln at age forty-five, after his 1854 Peoria speech railing against Senator Stephen A. Douglas and his Kansas-Nebraska bill allowing for the extension of slavery in the territories. (Photograph by Johan Carl Frederic Von Scheidau) Lincoln in 1858, after the trial of Duff Armstrong, whom Lincoln represented. It was known as the “almanac trial”; Lincoln obtained an acquittal. (Photo by Abraham Byers, Beardstown, Illinois) Lincoln’s “particular friend,” Ward Hill Lamon, who had a law partnership with Lincoln in Danville, Illinois. Appointed marshal of the District of Columbia, he served as President Lincoln’s sometime bodyguard. Illustration of the S. M. T. Tinsley Store. The law firms of Lincoln and Logan as well as Lincoln and Herndon had offices in this building. The Lincoln and Herndon law office. (Drawing by Kate M. Hall) John Todd Stuart, Lincoln’s fellow veteran of the Black Hawk War, who encouraged Lincoln to study law. A fellow Whig, he made Lincoln his law partner—Lincoln’s first. Judge David Davis presided over the Eighth Judicial Circuit most of the twentyfour years of Lincoln’s law practice. Judge Davis respected Lincoln so much that he would have him sit as judge in his absence. Davis was one of Lincoln’s campaign managers for the Republican nomination in 1860. President Lincoln named him an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1862. Norman A. Judd was one of Illinois’ most respected attorneys and served on Lincoln’s campaign team at the Wigwam in Chicago. Samuel H. Treat was Lincoln’s fellow attorney, an Illinois Supreme Court justice during 1841–1845, and later a judge on the U.S. District Court. The Lincolns’ home at 8th and Jackson. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) The Metamora House, where Lincoln would stay while in Woodford County. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) The Metamora Courthouse, the site of the Melissa Goings murder trial in Woodford County, Illinois. Goings was accused of killing her abusive husband, and Lincoln defended her. The clerk’s docket reveals that Lincoln advised Goings to flee when the trial went badly. She did, and the indictment against her was dismissed a year later. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) The first Macon County Courthouse, where Lincoln practiced while on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) The law office of Logan and Lincoln was on the third floor of this building in Springfield, Illinois, 1841–1843. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) Tazewell County Courthouse in Pekin, Illinois. (Etched and printed by Bernhardt Wall) Map of the Eighth Judicial Circuit district in Illinois, 1847–1853. (Courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) This advertisement for Lincoln’s law firm ran almost daily in the Springfield, Illinois, newspaper. (From the collection of Roger Billings) ...