Abraham Lincoln to Aaron L. Chapin, 5 July 18551
Chicago,2 July 5. 1855.Rev– A. L. Chapin:Sir:On the evening of the 3rd, after Banking hours, Judge D. Davis left with me $480 in currency, with the request that I would deposite it, to your credit, in the Banking house of Geo,, Smith & Co, and send you the certificate of deposite– Yesterday, being the 4th, the Bank was closed– This morning I made the deposite, and herewith is the certificate–3
Yours &C.[etc.]A. Lincoln–<Page 2>
2Lincoln was in Chicago to attend the session of the U.S. Circuit and District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois which convened on July
2, 1855. He returned to Springfield by July 18, 1855.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 July 1855, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1855-07-02; 18 July 1855, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1855-07-18.
3Neither the enclosed certificate of deposit nor any further correspondence between
Lincoln and either Aaron L. Chapin or David Davis on this subject have been located.
This transaction may have been related to Davis’ administration of the estate of his
former law partner, Wells Colton, who was the brother of Chapin’s first wife, Martha Colton Chapin.
Willard L. King, Lincoln’s Manager: David Davis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 66-67, 335.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Box 5, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).