Abraham Lincoln to Abraham Jonas, 21 October 18561
Urbana, Oct 21. 1856A. Jonas, Esq[Esquire]My dear Sir:I am here at court, and find myself so “hobbled” with a particular case, that I can not leave, & consequently, can not be with you on the 23rd, I regret this exceedingly, but there is no help for it–2 Please make the best appology, for me, in your power–
Your friend as everA. Lincoln–<Page 2>
2A letter of invitation from Abraham Jonas to Lincoln, if one was penned, has not been
found. Jonas lived in Quincy, Illinois, at the time.
On the day Lincoln wrote this letter, he was representing Charles Chiniquy in the slander case Spink v. Chiniquy in the Champaign County Circuit Court. Chiniquy, a Catholic priest, allegedly continued to tell his congregation that Peter Spink had committed perjury after Spink had been acquitted. Spink accused Chiniquy of slander
in the Kankakee County Circuit Court and requested $10,000 in damages. After a change
of venue to the Champaign County Circuit Court, Chiniquy retained Lincoln for his
defense. Lincoln managed to settle the case before it went to trial and it was dismissed
in October 1856.
Lincoln attended and spoke at a Republican rally in Atlanta on October 23. Between July and November 1856, Lincoln crisscrossed Illinois canvassing
on behalf of Republican Party candidates for political office. He delivered over fifty
speeches in support of the Republican cause. See the 1856 Federal Election.
Isaac Markens, Abraham Lincoln and the Jews
(New York: Isaac Markens, 1909), 17-18; Spink v. Chiniquy, 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=136641; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 5 November 1856, 2:3; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:425-33; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1 November 1856, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1856-11-01.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Private Collection, Shapell Legacy Partnership (Beverly Hills, CA) (2015).