Lincoln the Lawyer
By Brian Dirck
(January 2009 Civil War News)

Notes, bibliography, index, 228 pp., 2007. University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak St., Champaign, IL 61820-6903, $29.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Jeffry D. Wert
Jeffry D. Wert is a retired Pennsylvania high school teacher. He is the author of eight books on the Civil War, including his recent Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart. 

Review:
Abraham Lincoln practiced law for a quarter-century, longer than any president. In those years, he was involved in more than 4,000 cases. He represented debtors, creditors, aggrieved spouses, criminals, businessmen, manufacturers and disputatious neighbors. Lincoln even served, at times, as a presiding judge.

During his years as an attorney, Lincoln shared a practice with three men — John Stuart, Stephen Logan and William Herndon — each at separate times in Springfield. From 1844 until he left the Illinois capital for Washington, D.C., Lincoln partnered with Herndon.

Their office was, in the words of author Brian Dirck, “such an epic mess that even other lawyers were taken aback.”

Although Herndon shared the closest personal relationship with Lincoln of the partners, the younger man admitted that the future president “never revealed himself entirely to one man.”

While Lincoln and Herndon conducted much of their business from their seedy office, the legal practice during the antebellum era required of a lawyer weeks at a time riding “the circuit.”

With Herndon in Springfield, Lincoln traveled from one county seat to another in the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, representing clients in many cases. For Lincoln, the circuit-riding made him a well-known figure in the counties, abetting his political aspirations.

It is within this context of time and place that Dirck, a history professor at Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., examines Lincoln’s legal career in Lincoln the Lawyer.

Dirck’s book does not focus on Lincoln’s famous cases, but on the era’s legal profession and Lincoln’s place in it. While Lincoln myths have portrayed him as a sage, honest country lawyer, Dirck offers a detailed description of Lincoln’s practice, which was typical of hundreds of other lawyers’ in the 1840s and 1850s.

The majority of cases handled by Lincoln involved debt litigation. He represented both debtors and creditors, more times than not appearing for creditors. Although these disputes garnered modest fees, the litigation provided Lincoln and his partners with a steady source of income. Dirck makes the point that Lincoln endeavored often to settle such disputed matters out of court.

Dirck presents a thorough study of Lincoln’s legal practice, relying heavily on the Lincoln Legal Papers project and its excellent CD-ROM database. From this vast collection of primary material, the author has woven a welcome work.

He concludes, contrary to myths and even the judgments of some historians, that Lincoln was “in reality a pretty ordinary attorney.”

A disconcerting aspect of Dirck’s book, however, is the author’s penchant to speculate about Lincoln’s motives and thoughts. Nevertheless, Lincoln the Lawyer is a well-researched, well-written and refreshing study.