Lincoln Legal Papers Project

[L Verge]

Most of us know about the projects to preserve and make available the documentary papers related to Lincoln's law practice. A current technical leaflet produced by the American Association of State and Local History contains a reference to this project.

"In 2000, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency published the complete documentary edition of Lincoln's law practice - 91,000 documents relating to 5600 cases and non-litigation activities. In 2008, the University of Virginia Press published The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases in a four-volume edition.

"The principal purpose...was to assemble the documentation relating to Lincoln's law practice to understand better the breadth and depth of his twenty-five year legal career. As a result...a wealth of books and articles have been published on the subject. While the documents provide information about Lincoln, they also provide a plethora of information about society in antebellum Illinois.

"We learn, for example, that several counties had an unusually large number of slander cases. ...These cases show a sharp gender divide. Men were typically accused of theft or other petty crimes, but women were more often accused of improper sexual behavior. Most all slander cases resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff/accused against the defendant/accuser, but in many cases, the plaintiff remitted (or returned) the damage award. This indicates that the purpose of the suit was not to gain a monetary award, but to restore the reputation of the accused. Reputation was very important in antebellum society...and common law remedy of slander was one legal action to regain that reputation."

That quote led me to wonder how often then-President Lincoln contemplated suing someone for slander. He and Mrs. Lincoln were certainly the targets of many a mud-slinger's sling-shot.