Abraham Lincoln to Jacob Harding, 25 May 18551
Danville, May 25. 1855Friend Harding:I have been reading your paper three or four years, and have paid you nothing for it– Herewith is a receipt of
Sylvanus Sandford for two claims amounting to ten dollars– If he has collected the money, get it from
him, and put it into your pocket, saying nothing further about it–2
And now, if you please, I should be glad for you to put in your paper of this week, the names of Stephen T. Logan, as a candidate for Judge of the Supreme court; and of Stephen A. Corneau, for Clerk of the Supreme Court–
Please also print, and distribute a suitable number of tickets for them; and we, at
Springfield will pay the reasonable charge–
As the Sir-name of our candid-
Very truly yoursA. Lincoln–<Page 2>
ate for clerk is rather an uncommon one I try to write it very plainly— “Corneau”
the last letter being, not an “N” but an “U”3<Page 3>
<Page 4>
2On May 16, 1855, Sylvanus S. Sandford and Daniel R. Sandford wrote Lincoln a letter notifying him that they had received payment on one of two five-dollar
notes that he had left in their care. Lincoln was unaware of this fact at the time
that he wrote this letter to Jacob Harding, as Lincoln’s June 3 reply to the Sandfords reveals.
3In 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. Lincoln and others endorsed Stephen T. Logan’s candidacy in a letter to Orville H. Browning dated March 23 and endorsed Stephen A. Corneau’s candidacy in a petition dated April 26.
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. William A. Turney defeated Corneau for the office of clerk of the Supreme Court, with 1,796 votes to
Corneau’s 1,367.
"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, 54; “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, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference/Reference%20html%20files/Chronology--ISC.html; David A. Smith to Abraham Lincoln; John Dean Caton, Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News, 1893), 94; Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 21 June 1855, 2:4.
Autograph Letter Signed, 4 page(s), Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, MN).