Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/315



LETTER ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO JAMES T. THORNTON

The following autograph letter of Abraham Lincoln was brought to Wilsonville, Oregon, from Urbana, Cham- paign county, Illinois, by J. W. Thornton, in February, 1906, and is a precious heirloom of his family, having been given him by his father, the gentleman to whom it was written. The Mr. Widmer referred to followed Mr. Lin- coln's advice and began the study of law, but before he secured a license to practice the Civil war began. Then his legal studies were dropped and he enlisted in response to the first call for volunteers, and rose from the ranks to a colonel. After the war he resumed his law studies and in a few years became eminent in his profession and now lives in Urbana, Illinois. It is believed that this is the first time that anything appears in Mr. Lincoln's writings describing how he acquired a knowledge of the law. The Historical Society is under obligations to Mr. Thornton for kindly loaning the letter to Mr. Himes, Assistant Secretary, with permission to both copy and photograph it.

"Springfield, Dec'r 2, 1858. "James T. Thornton, Esq.,

"Dear Sir : Yours of the 29th, written in behalf of Mr. John H. Widmer, is received. I am absent altogether too much to be a siutable instructor for a law student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widmer has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgement is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way that I came to the law. Let Mr. Wid- mer read Blackstone's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Story's Equity Pleadings, get a license, and go to the practice, and still keep reading. That is my judgment of the cheapest, quick- est, and best way for Mr. Widmer to make a lawyer of himself. Yours truly,

"A. LINCOLN."