Abraham Lincoln to Henry E. Dummer, 19 March 18551
Springfield: March 19. 1855Dear Dummer.Yours of the 16th is just received–2 Herewith are the bond, and both the letters of my corres correspondents, in relation to it– The letters contain all the information I have
on the subject–3 I wrote them the same day I wrote you, that I was going to send you the claim, if you would take it–4
Logan is willing to take the vacant seat on the Supreme Bench; but he is very anxious to not be beaten, if he is put on the track as a candidate–5 Our friends here, and everywhere, so far as I have heard, are for him; but it behooves
us to be wide awake– At the last congressional election there was a small majority against us in this middle Division–6 I am quite anxious for Logan's election, first, because he will make the best Judge,
& second because it would hurt his feelings to be beaten worse than it would almost
any one else–7
Your friend as everA. Lincoln–3The items Lincoln references were not found enclosed in this letter, and their whereabouts
are unknown.
4The bond and correspondence Lincoln enclosed in this letter consisted of a bond for
$2,000 and two letters from James S. Sandford, Mortimer Porter, and Garrit H. Striker, Jr.—one penned December 15, 1854 and the other March 5, 1855. The bond and letters concerned
an attachment suit brought on by one Mr. Pray against Samuel A. Clift. Clift had made a bond with Pray for $2,000. Clift had failed to pay the bond,
and Pray had commenced an attachment suit to collect the debt. Attachment involved
a legal action through which a plaintiff could have the court seize the defendant’s
personal or real property pending the outcome of a case involving a debt of $20 or
more; creditors frequently used attachment against debtors. Although both Clift and
Pray were residents of New York, Clift had a 330-acre farm one mile from Rushville, out of which Pray, in his attachment suit, wished the collection be made. In their
letter of December 15, 1854, Sandford, Porter, and Striker sent Lincoln the bond
for collection. Lincoln failed to collect the debt, noting in his reply to Sandford, Porter, and Striker of March 10, 1855, that he had been “dabbling in
politics”--reference to his successful bid to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln wrote Dummer on March 10 explaining the case and asking if he would accept the work.
The final outcome of the case is unknown. See the 1854 Federal Election.
Abraham Lincoln to Henry E. Dummer; Abraham Lincoln to James S. Sandford, Mortimer Porter, and Garrit H. Striker, Jr.; “Attachment;” Reference, Glossary, 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/Reference.aspx?ref=Reference%20html%20files/Glossary.html; Lincoln referred Sandford et al. to Dummer, 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=141324.
5In March 1855, Judge Samuel H. Treat resigned as chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court in order to become judge
of the newly created U.S. Circuit Court, Southern District of Illinois.
"An Act to Divide the State of Illinois into Two Judicial Circuits," 13 February 1855,
Statutes at Large of the United States
10 (1855):606-7; Louis L. Emmerson, ed., Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1923-1924 (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1923), 613; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent
(Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:35; “Illinois Supreme Court Terms and Justices,” Reference,
Chronologies, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference/Reference%20html%20files/Chronology--ISC.html; David A. Smith to Abraham Lincoln.
6The “middle Division” is a reference to the “second grand division” of the Illinois
Supreme Court. The 1848 Illinois Constitution divided the state into three grand divisions, each division to elect one of the justices
on the court. The second grand division included twenty-nine counties in the Illinois
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh congressional districts in central Illinois.
In the Congressional Election of 1854, Democratic candidates won seats in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh districts, and Republicans won in the Third and Fourth districts. Lincoln may have been specifically referencing
the election in the Sixth District, where Democrat Thomas L. Harris defeated Richard Yates, a Whig and the incumbent, by 200 votes.
Ill. Const. of 1848, art. V, § 3, 30; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds.,
Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 9-10, 134-35.
7Lincoln and others also endorsed Logan’s candidacy in a letter to Orville H. Browning dated March 23. In June 1855, Onius C. Skinner defeated Logan to succeed Treat on the Illinois Supreme Court as an associate justice.
Walter B. Scates took over the role of chief justice.
“Illinois Supreme Court Terms and Justices,” Reference, Chronologies, Martha L. Benner
and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference/Reference%20html%20files/Chronology--ISC.html; John M. Palmer,
ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent, 1:35, 54; John Dean Caton, Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News, 1893), 94; Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Box 5, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).