Blackwell, Robert S.

Born: 1823-XX-XX Belleville, Illinois

Died: 1863-05-16 Chicago, Illinois

In 1840, Blackwell began studying law under the direction of Orville H. Browning in Quincy, Illinois, later beginning his own practice in Rushville. He served as the state's attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit from 1848 to 1852. Blackwell also had an active practice before the Illinois Supreme Court, where he opposed Abraham Lincoln in six cases and worked with him in one case. He was co-counsel with Lincoln in at least two cases in the federal courts. In 1852, he moved to Chicago, where he had a series of partnerships with other lawyers. Blackwell authored A Practical Treatise on the Power to Sell Land for the Non-Payment of Taxes Assessed Thereon (1855) and, with Illinois Supreme Court Justices Walter B. Scates and Samuel H. Treat, compiled an edition of the revised statutes of Illinois in 1858.

Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 18 May 1863, 4:3; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Schuyler County, ed. Howard F. Dyson (Chicago: Munsell, 1908), 1:49-50; History of Pike County, Illinois (Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880), 391; For Blackwell's cases involving Lincoln, search "Blackwell, Robert S.," 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.