Mark Hamilton to Lincoln & Herndon, 14 May 18581
St Louis May 14th 1858Mess[Messieurs] Lincoln & HerndonSpringfield IllsGentlemenI presume Mr Shepley has advised you to collect 10% damages on the Bill against J. Cooper, this day forwarded2 You will please attend to the matter particularly at the coming term of US Court.3
Yours very resply[respectfully]Mark Hamilton4<Page 2>
[Envelope]
[SAI]NT LOUIS MO.[Missouri]
[MAY] 15 [?]Mess Lincoln & HerndonSpringfieldIlls
[MAY] 15 [?]Mess Lincoln & HerndonSpringfieldIlls
<Page 3>
2No correspondence between Lincoln & Herndon and St. Louis attorney John R. Shepley
on the subject of this legal matter has been located.
The bill enclosed here was a bill of exchange for $2,272.31, dated February 8, 1858,
which Jesse Cooper had given to Hamilton to redeem at the Alton Bank after ninety days. Hamilton had attempted to redeem the bill on May 12, but the
bank refused payment and Hamilton retained Lincoln & Herndon to sue Cooper in an action
of assumpsit for $3,000 in damages.
“Shepley, John Rutledge,” The National Cyclopædia of American Biography
(New York: James T. White, 1937), 26:257; Bill of Exchange, Document ID: 65616; Declaration,
Document ID: 65630, Hamilton v. Cooper, 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), https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137702.
3Following receipt of this letter Lincoln filed a praecipe on May 17, 1858, in the
U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illinois, instructing the court to notify Cooper of the proceedings against him. Cooper failed
to appear and the court ruled on Hamilton’s behalf on June 19, awarding him $2,289.15.
Cooper was found to own no property and the sheriff was unable to execute the judgment.
The firm of Wolff & Hoppe also sued Cooper in an action of assumpsit in the U.S. Circuit
Court for the Southern District of Illinois in June of 1858 and were likewise unable
to collect the sum awarded them by the court. Hamilton and Wolff & Hoppe instead found
thirty-eight people who owed Cooper money and retained Lincoln & Herndon to institute
garnishment proceedings on their behalf. Cooper apparently ultimately paid the judgments
in both cases, as Lincoln & Herndon dismissed the garnishment proceedings in January
of 1859.
Praecipe, Document ID: 65629; Judgment Docket: 65625; Order, Document ID: 65635, Hamilton v. Cooper, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137702; Order, Document ID: 64872, Wolff & Hoppe v. Cooper, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, https://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137610.
4No response to this letter by Lincoln & Herndon nor further correspondence with Hamilton
on the subject has been located.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).