Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to David A. Smith, 17 June 18531
Springfield, June 17. 1853.D. A. Smith, Esq[Esquire]Dear Sir:
The depositions from New-York arrived this morning– I have not had time to read them; but they are very long & are made by the [n]ine persons whose names follow, towit Jasper Corning, Thomas Denny, Guy Richards, James Boorman, John C. Brigham, John Marsh, Nathaniel Richards, George D. Phelps & William M. Halstead–

I have written to Carlinville, as I promised you–2
Yours trulyA. Lincoln–

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[ docketing ]
06/18/1853
letter of A Lincoln.
Rec^d[Received] 18th June 1853,
D. A. Smith,3

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.
The left side of the original letter is damaged. The supplied text for the missing portion is from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 2:198.

2In an endorsement on a letter Nathaniel Coffin wrote Lincoln on June 21, 1853, Lincoln reveals that William Weer, Jr. and Alexander M. Dubois were the parties in Carlinville, Illinois to whom he wrote. Lincoln’s letter to Weer and Dubois has not been located.
This letter is related to the legal case, Gilman et al. v. Hamilton et al. In 1835, Gideon Blackburn purchased more than 16,000 acres of land throughout Illinois as a fund with which to build a seminary in Carlinville. Blackburn conveyed the land to six trustees to carry out his wishes, then died in 1838. By 1844, the Blackburn trustees had sold some of the land to pay the taxes but had not yet begun to build the seminary. Fearing that the land was not valuable and that they could not raise enough money, in 1844 Winthrop S. Gilman and the other Blackburn trustees sued Elizabeth H. Hamilton and Blackburn's other heirs in an action to convey the land to the trustees of Illinois College and establish the "Blackburn Theological Professorship" at Illinois College. The case began in the Macoupin County Circuit Court, but, in September 1844, the court granted a change of venue to the Sangamon County Circuit Court. Blackburn's heirs agreed with the trustees, and the court ordered the conveyance of the land to Illinois College in March 1845. Illinois College subsequently sold most of the land to Coffin. Blackburn's heirs apparently reconsidered and appealed the judgment to the Illinois Supreme Court. In December 1850, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the case on a technicality and remanded it back to the Sangamon County Circuit Court. Gilman and the other Blackburn trustees had not proven their case, especially against Blackburn's minor heir.

The case returned to the Sangamon County Circuit Court in March 1851, and Gilman retained Lincoln, Coffin, John M. Palmer, and David A. Smith. Blackburn's heirs filed a cross-bill against Gilman and the Blackburn trustees, Coffin, and the Illinois College trustees. In November 1854, the Sangamon County Circuit Court ruled that neither Coffin nor Illinois College had any title in the lands, which remained with the Blackburn trustees. The court ordered the Blackburn trustees to sell the land, build the buildings, establish the seminary as Gideon Blackburn had wished, and pay Illinois College and Coffin the money that they had expended in taxes. In December 1854, Gilman, Coffin, and Illinois College appealed the case to the Illinois Supreme Court. That same month, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. Justice Walter B. Scates invoked the cy-pres rule, which called for the fulfillment of Gideon Blackburn's original intentions as nearly as possible. Scates asserted that the Blackburn trustees incorrectly attempted to change Gideon Blackburn's idea of a seminary to a professorship at a different college. As a result of the decree, Coffin applied to the Sangamon County Circuit Court for a refund of $7,677.18, but, after some reductions, the master in chancery awarded him $2,921.14 in October 1858. In September 1859, the court set aside that award and awarded him $2,697.61 on his claim. Lincoln received at least $100 for his legal services.
Decree, Document ID: 134855, Gilman et al. v. Hamilton et al., 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=139109; Hamilton et al. v. Gilman et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139111; Master in Chancery’s Report, Document ID: 74521; Decree, Document ID: 74529, Gilman et al. v. Hamilton et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139110; Gilman et al. v. Hamilton et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139112.

3Smith wrote this docketing.