Description:

Abraham Lincoln
Springfield, IL, June 10, 1840
Abraham Lincoln Signed With Over 100 Words in His Hand, Represents First Clients Before Illinois Supreme Court! A Formative Moment
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Autograph Document Signed, Assignment of Errors in case of James and Leonard v. Hughill, dated June 10, 1840, and filed June 19, Springfield, Illinois. 1 p., 8" x 11.25". Silked; small losses to right edge, affecting two words; residue on verso from original wax.

This document illustrates attorney Abraham Lincoln's extensive appellate practice before the Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield. This case came before the Illinois Supreme Court in the term that Lincoln first appeared before that court, and this document was among the first that Lincoln filed with the Illinois Supreme Court. He and his partners went on to handle more than three hundred cases before the Illinois Supreme Court.

In 1837, Josiah L. James gave Joseph Hughill a promissory note for $1,835 for the purchase of 160 acres of land and secured the note with a mortgage on the property. James sold the land to Isaac Leonard and made payments of $1,007.33 to Hughill but did not pay the balance. In response, Hughill sued James and Leonard in the September 1839 term of the Tazewell County Circuit Court to foreclose the mortgage. The defendants did not appear, and the court ordered them to pay Hughill $1,061.08 by the beginning of the next court term or lose the property by sale.

James and Leonard retained Abraham Lincoln, assisted by Edward D. Baker, and appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court during its June 1840 term. Stephen T. Logan represented Hughill and moved to dismiss the appeal because of an insufficient appeal bond. The Supreme Court overruled Logan's motion, and Logan argued that the record was incomplete and asked the Supreme Court to issue a writ of certiorari ordering the lower court to send a complete copy of the record. Logan discovered that the sheriff had not signed the summons in the lower court. The parties agreed to dismiss the appeal, and at its December 1840 term, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Tazewell County Circuit Court to execute the judgment. When the case was returned to the Tazewell court, that court struck it from the docket, suggesting that the parties reached an agreement out of court.

Four months after the final Supreme Court ruling, Lincoln became Stephen T. Logan's junior law partner.

Complete Transcript
In the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois
June Term 1840
James & Leonard
vs
Hughill
Appeal from Tazewell
And the said plaintiff assigns for error, in the record, decree, and proceedings therein, the following, towit:
First—The court below erred in rendering the interlocutory decree, as by the default of the defendants below, and subsequently the final decree, because the said defendants below, do not appear by the record, to have been regularly served with process.
Second. The court below erred, in that it decreed in said cause, for appellee, whereas it should have decreed for the appelants; and also for other errors in the record and decrees aforesaid.
Stuart & Lincoln for appellants

[File Note, written by Lincoln:] James & Leonard vs. Hughill / Assignment of Errors.

[File Note, written by clerk James M. Duncan:] Filed June 19, 1840 / JM Duncan

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 11.25"
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