Lincoln Studies Law in New Salem – Lincoln’s Study Room

Lincoln Reads the law “Lincoln used to come to our office -- Stuart's and mine -- in Springfield from New Salem and borrow law books. Sometimes he walked, but generally rode.”

" If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read with any body or not. I did not read with any one. Get the books, and read and study them till, you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New-Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places."

"He still mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. When the legislature met, the law books were dropped, but were taken up again at the end of the session. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, and In the autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield, and commenced the practice--his old friend Stuart taking him into partnership." Vandalia Statehouse

Lincoln’s Law Partners John Todd Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, and William H. Herndon

In his nearly 25 years as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln had three partners. He joined John Todd Stuart ( ) as a junior partner, then started a new practice as a junior partner with Stephen T. Logan ( ). After he and Logan dissolved their partnership, he took William H. Herndon ( ) as his junior partner. With all three, Lincoln functioned as a general practitioner, taking a wide variety of civil and criminal cases.

In 1844 Lincoln dissolved his partnership with Logan and took William Herndon as a junior partner. In a sense, their association continued until Lincoln's death in Before he left for the White House, Lincoln told Herndon, "If I live I'm coming back sometime, and then we'll go right on practising law as if nothing had ever happened."

"So far as his reading knowledge of law went he had a quite unusual grasp of the principles involved. When he was with me, I have seen him get a case and seem to be bewildered at first, but he would go at it and after a while he would master it. He was very tenacious in his grasp of a thing that he once got hold of." Stephen T. Logan, Lincoln’s Partner

"First Mr. Lincoln would come down to the office about 8 a.m., sometimes in a good-natured, cheerful mood, speak pleasantly, tell a good story, and thus he would continue till twelve o'clock; about 2 p.m. he would return to the office, on the same day, in a sad, terribly gloomy state, pick up a pen, sit down by the table, and write a moment of two, and then become abstracted and wholly absorbed on some question; he would often put his chin in the palm of his left hand. I have often watched Mr. Lincoln in this state while he was lost in the world of his thoughts, gazing in the distance." Tinsley Building, Springfield, Illinois

United States District Courtroom, Springfield, Illinois

Metamora Courthouse, one of the courthouses on the Eighth Judicial Circuit in which Lincoln practiced

Metamora courtroom as in the days of Lincoln’s Practice

Mt. Pulaski Courthouse – one of the Stops on the Eighth Judicial Circuit

Beardstown Courtroom – Site of the Almanac Trial