By David J. Kent
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
“I am not an accomplished lawyer,” Lincoln wrote in 1850 notes for a law lecture. Continuing in this unpretentious vein, he noted, “I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful.”
Contrary to his routine use of self-deprecating language when referring to himself, Lincoln unquestionably became a successful lawyer, and as such, potential law students reached out to him for counseling. In the western frontier of Illinois in the first half of the nineteenth century, most students were not attending formal law schools but rather “reading” the law with an established lawyer. That included Lincoln. William Herndon, for example, had studied the law in Lincoln’s office long before Lincoln took him on as a junior partner.
Lincoln responded to a letter received in late 1855 from Isham Reavis, who had been a student at Illinois College but decided to study the law after his lawyer father died. Lincoln begged off, saying that he was away from home much of the time riding the 8th circuit, and thus it would not be advantageous for anyone to read the law with him. He was encouraging, however, telling young Reavis that “If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.” Lincoln went on to tell Reavis did not need to read with anyone, but it would be sufficient to “get the books, and read and study them till, you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing.” He then referred him to a fellow lawyer who could loan him the books.
He was more specific in a response to J.M. Brockman in September 1860, four months after receiving the Republican nomination for president. After telling him that the best mode for studying the law, though laborious and tedious, “is only to get the books, and read, and study them carefully,” he recommended Brockman:
“Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after reading it carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, & Story's Equity &c. in succession.”
He added for emphasis: “Work, work, work, is the main thing.”
In his notes for a law lecture, Lincoln had stressed that “the leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence.” He also emphasized personal integrity, saying that “if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.” In his letter to Isham Reavis, Lincoln reiterated the idea of hard work but added a dose of encouragement, ending with “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.”
He signed off, “Very truly Your friend A. Lincoln.”
[All quotes from Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]