Abraham Lincoln to Buckner S. Morris and John J. Brown, 21 October 18471
Springfield, Oct. 21. 1847Messrs Morris & Brown:GentlemenYour second letter on the matter of Thornton & others, came to hand this morning–2 I went at once to see Logan, and found that he is not engaged against you, and that he had so sent you word by
Mr Butterfield, as he says– He says that some time ago, a young man (who he knows not) came to him,
to with a copy of the affidavit, to engage him to aid in getting the Govenor to grant the warrant; and that he, Logan, told the man, that in his opinion, the
affidavit3 was clearly insufficient, upon which the young man left, without making any engagement
with him– If the Govenor shall arrive before I leave, Logan & I will both attend to the matter, and he will attend to it, if he does not come ^till after^ before I leave; all upon the condition that the Governor shall not have acted upon the matter,
before his arrival here– I mention this condition because, I learned this morning from the
Secretary of State, that he is forwarding to the Govenor, at Palestine, all papers he receives in the case, as fast as he receives them– Among the papers
forwarded will be your letter to the Gov:[Governor] or Sec–[Secretary] of I believe, the same date & about the same contents of your last letter to me;
so that the Gov: will, at all events have your points and authorities– The case is a clear one on
our side; but whether the Gov– will view it so is another thing–4
Yours as everA. Lincoln<Page 2>
1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed the letter. An unknown person wrote the docketing
on the back page.
2Lincoln had provided a preliminary answer to Buckner S. Morris and John J. Brown in
a letter written on October 19.
Joseph Thornton, Andrew Pringle, Samuel Stead, and John Davidson fled England with $300,000 belonging to a group of creditors and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, on the steamer Caledonia on July 4, 1847. With the cash in hand, the men went to Albany, New York, before fleeing west. Authorities arrested two of them in Chicago and New York authorities sought extradition of the men back to New York.
Alexandria Gazette (VA), 23 November 1847, 2:6.
4Morris and Brown represented Thornton, Davidson, and Stead who were fighting extradition
from Illinois to New York. Morris and Brown asked Lincoln to present their objections to the Illinois
Governor Augustus C. French. In November, Governor French refused to grant the warrant
for extradition, citing the insufficiency of the affidavit.
Augustus C. French to John Young, 30 November 1847, Evarts Boutell Greene and Charles
Manfred Thompson, eds., Governors’ Letter-Books, 1840-1853, Executive Series, vol. 7 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1911), 2:146-47; Morris & Brown asked Lincoln to present objections to governor, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=141526.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).