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Abraham Lincoln: American Lawyer-President

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Abraham Lincoln: American Lawyer-President Social Education 73(1), pp 23–27 ©2009 National Council for the Social Studies Looking at the Law Abraham Lincoln: American Lawyer-President Brian Dirck Abraham Lincoln was the most experienced trial lawyer Americans have ever he was “raised to farm work.” When he placed in the White House. While more than half of our nation’s presidents have been struck out on his own in 1831, at the age attorneys, none possessed Lincoln’s extensive courtroom experience: approximately of 22, arriving in the Illinois village of 3,800 known cases, litigated during a quarter century at the Illinois bar.1 New Salem (like a piece of “floating drift- wood,” as he put it), he tried all sorts of occupations—everything from postmaster to land surveyor—in an attempt to earn a living. He later wrote that he “thought of trying to study law,” but “rather thought he could not succeed at that without a better education.” 2 Eventually, however, Lincoln decided that the law was his best hope for earning decent money, achieving respectability, and feeding his growing political ambi- tions. He never attended a law school; few lawyers back then did. Rather, he bor- rowed the necessary books from a friend, attorney John Todd Stuart of Springfield, studied the books carefully, and then took an oral exam. Upon passing, he was entered into the Sangamon County, Illinois, docket book as a man of “good moral character” on March 24, 1836.3 Stuart became Lincoln’s first law part- The Coles County Court House in Charleston, Illinois, in which Lincoln often practiced law ner. Theirs was a profitable—if some- and before which he made a short speech following his fourth joint debate with Douglas, what difficult—partnership, made so by Sept. 18, 1858 (Courtesy the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Stuart’s frequent absences, including his LC-DIG-ppmsca-19197) election to Congress in 1838, which left neophyte Lincoln alone to manage their However, the law’s influence on communicate with the common people he sprawling practice. Lincoln was still raw Lincoln extended far beyond the mere confronted in jury boxes and courtroom around the edges, unsure of himself, and number of cases he litigated. It was his galleries, how to resolve disputes among given to sloppiness in handling paper- only steady source of income; it gave family members and neighbors, and how work and the minutiae of everyday life as him important political contacts within to preserve law and order and maintain an attorney. He also sometimes entered the state’s bench and bar; and it was community harmony—all lessons that courtrooms improperly attired. One cli- the means by which he met an extraor- would serve him well as president ent exclaimed that Lincoln looked like “a dinary number of his constituents. As The law was not a natural choice for country rustic on his visit to the circus,” a lawyer, Lincoln also learned how to Lincoln. He noted in his writings that and fired him on the spot.4 J ANUARY /FEBRUARY 2009 23 Stuart and Lincoln parted ways office—with dusty, dirty, and unkempt when to stop.” 9 in 1841. Lincoln then partnered with desk and table surfaces covered with Few lawyers in his day specialized; Stephen Logan, an irascible but brilliant papers and books (including an envelope there was not enough litigation in any local judge (Lincoln tried his first case in Lincoln labeled “When you can’t find it one area of the law for most lawyers to Logan’s courtroom) who had decided to anyplace else, look in this”)—was at the earn a steady living by doing so. But if re-enter private practice. In many ways, same time the two men’s workplace, ref- Lincoln did not specialize, he did dis- Logan helped professionalize Lincoln, uge, and think tank. “Lincoln’s favorite play a marked tendency towards one type teaching him the fundamentals of paper- position when unraveling some knotty of case: debt collection. Of the 3,800 work, administration, and proper court- law point was to stretch both of his legs extant cases of his practice, more than room behavior. Logan later stated that at full length upon a chair in front of him,” half involved some form of debt litiga- Lincoln’s “knowledge of the law was very Herndon recalled, and “in this position, tion.10 In any given year, debt collection small when I took him in.” But Logan with books on the table near by and in dominated his professional life. During admired his partner’s work ethic and his his lap, he worked up his case.” 7 the year of 1850, for example, Lincoln tenacity. “He would get a case and try Lincoln did not actually spend an inor- appeared as an attorney of record in 73 to know all there was connected with dinate amount of time in the office; in fact, cases—42 of those cases involved some it.” And in this way, according to Logan, much of his practice focused on “riding form of debt litigation.11 Lincoln “got to be quite a formidable the circuit,” in his case the Eighth Judicial Most of Lincoln’s debt work was fairly lawyer.” 5 Circuit that encompassed much of central straightforward. During that same year, In 1844, Logan decided to create Illinois. At least twice a year, Lincoln Lincoln and Herndon successfully a new firm with his son, and Lincoln would pack a few law books, grab his blue represented the firm of B.C. Webster again found himself without a partner. cloak and faded green umbrella with a and company, which sued a local man By this point, Lincoln was an experi- broken handle, and accompany a judge named Henry Dresser over an unpaid enced attorney who had litigated more and half a dozen or so fellow lawyers to promissory note and was awarded $180. than 1,000 cases; he was now a senior try cases in courthouses throughout the In another case that year, Lincoln rep- partner, looking for a junior partner to circuit. The roads were bad (the Eighth resented his friend Edward Baker in complement his skills and expertise. He was nicknamed the “mud circuit”), the a lawsuit to recover payment on three found such a man in William (Billy) H. food and accommodations were worse— promissory notes given to him by a man Herndon—Lincoln’s third and final law and Lincoln loved every minute of it. “If named John D. Moffett. And in a third partner. every other fellow grumbled at the bill- case, Lincoln and Herndon represented Herndon was, in many respects, of-fare which greeted us at many of the a Menard County man named Abraham quite different from Lincoln; nine years dingy taverns,” remembered a fellow Bale, who sued Virgil Hickox and Asa younger, he came from a comfortable attorney, “Lincoln said nothing.” 8 Wright concerning the proceeds from middle-class household, and enjoyed Litigating cases from his Springfield a sale of wheat; that matter was settled a brief stint in college before entering office and throughout central Illinois, out of court.12 the bar. Where Lincoln was at his best Lincoln encountered a wide variety of This was not very glamorous work; delivering jury speeches, Herndon’s clients and cases—bankruptcy, contract nor was it likely very interesting. But it strong suit was research. And while law, probate, real estate transactions, was important. Illinois’s economy was their politics were similar (both were partnership dissolutions, slander, neg- cash-poor, operating largely on the anti slavery), Herndon was very much ligence, divorce, larceny, assault, and credit represented by all those promis- the dreamer and philosopher, contrast- murder. He once represented a family sory notes and other debt agreements. ing with Lincoln’s eminently pragmatic accused of stealing fruit trees. On another Creditors needed to have confidence that approach to life. Herndon was also an occasion, he represented a group of tem- they could turn to a lawyer like Lincoln alcoholic; Lincoln bailed him out of jail perance-minded citizens who had broken to collect their money; otherwise, they on at least one occasion after a drinking into and destroyed a Tazewell County would have been less likely to make spree. “In his treatment of me Mr. Lincoln “grocery” (the preferred term at the time loans in the first place, to the detriment was the most generous, forbearing, and for a saloon). On yet another occasion, of the area’s economic development. At charitable man I ever knew,” Herndon he became involved in a complex patent the same time, debtors had to know they recalled.6 lawsuit concerning a self-rocking baby could turn to lawyers like Lincoln for The firm of Lincoln and Herndon cradle. Lincoln had a scale model of protection from their creditors during had several law offices at various times, the contraption in his office, which he bad times; otherwise, they might have all located in or near Springfield’s bus- showed to visitors and joked that it was been less likely to take the sort of entre- tling town square. By all accounts, their “like some of the glib talkers you and I preneurial risks necessary to develop housekeeping skills were appalling. The know ... when it gets going it don’t know their businesses. Either way, Lincoln was S OCIAL EDUCATION 24 TEACHING ACTIVITY Making Connections: Abraham Lincoln, Lawyer-President Tiffany Willey Overview Abraham Lincoln is America’s quintessential lawyer-president. This lesson allows students to draw tangible connections between the duties and dispositions of lawyers and presidents.
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