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Overview
"Abraham Lincoln has long been considered the greatest president by scholars of American history. According to legal scholars, he could just as easily have been one of the foremost lawyers in the nation had he not become president." "Lincoln practiced law for about twenty-five years, mainly in the circuit courts of Illinois. However, he was hardly a hick country lawyer. In contrast, Lincoln was an incisive, determined, and assertive litigator with an overwhelming caseload. He sought out new business for his law firm and cared about earning a comfortable living." "A ten-year research project, the Lincoln Legal Papers, discovered thousands of yellowed legal documents in musty and dusty courtroom basements. Those handwritten legal papers related to more than 5,000 cases that Lincoln handled, more than 400 before the supreme court of Illinois. In addition, Lincoln appeared before justices of the peace, circuit court judges, and even the Supreme Court of the United States." For the first time, this book uses the newly discovered legal documents to tell the story of more than sixty of Lincoln's cases. Many of these cases have never been written about previously. Allen D. Spiegel describes how Lincoln the lawyer handled a staggering variety of cases involving arbitration, assault and battery, bad debt, bankruptcy, bastardy, bestiality, breach of marriage, divorce, impeachment of an Illinois justice, insanity, land titles, libel, medical malpractice, murder, partnership dissolution, patent infringement, personal injuries, property damages, rape, railroad bonds, sexual slander, slave ownership, and wrongful dismissal.Synopsis
"Abraham Lincoln has long been considered the greatest president by scholars of American history. According to legal scholars, he could just as easily have been one of the foremost lawyers in the nation had he not become president." "Lincoln practiced law for about twenty-five years, mainly in the circuit courts of Illinois. However, he was hardly a hick country lawyer. In contrast, Lincoln was an incisive, determined, and assertive litigator with an overwhelming caseload. He sought out new business for his law firm and cared about earning a comfortable living." "A ten-year research project, the Lincoln Legal Papers, discovered thousands of yellowed legal documents in musty and dusty courtroom basements. Those handwritten legal papers related to more than 5,000 cases that Lincoln handled, more than 400 before the supreme court of Illinois. In addition, Lincoln appeared before justices of the peace, circuit court judges, and even the Supreme Court of the United States." For the first time, this book uses the newly discovered legal documents to tell the story of more than sixty of Lincoln's cases. Many of these cases have never been written about previously. Allen D. Spiegel describes how Lincoln the lawyer handled a staggering variety of cases involving arbitration, assault and battery, bad debt, bankruptcy, bastardy, bestiality, breach of marriage, divorce, impeachment of an Illinois justice, insanity, land titles, libel, medical malpractice, murder, partnership dissolution, patent infringement, personal injuries, property damages, rape, railroad bonds, sexual slander, slave ownership, and wrongful dismissal.