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ALS signed “A. Lincoln,” one page, 8 x 5, February 22, 1850. Addressed from Springfield, Illinois, a handwritten letter to lawyer Robert S. Blackwell, in full: “Your letter is received, and I will attend to the matter of the depositions, if nothing, now unknown, happens to prevent — Make your man send the five dollars as I am exceedingly hungry about now.” Affixed to a slightly larger cardstock mount and in very good to fine condition, with some faint toning and slight ink brushing.
As a Prairie lawyer, ‘Lincoln made his living almost entirely from the legal fees he earned. He started each case by setting the amount he would charge, estimating the hours he would spend and the difficulty of the case. Today most lawyers charge for hours worked at a set amount per hour, but Lincoln fixed his fee in advance and drafted a fee note for the client to sign.
Collecting fee notes was a challenge. Ideally, the client would pay in gold coins, but coins were scarce. If clients could not pay with coins, their real estate could be sold to pay the fee, but assuming they had real estate, its sale took time. When there was no other way to get paid, goods were acceptable as a last resort. Lincoln once took his fee in bricks! Occasionally he donated his services to needy clients, especially women.’
In 1840, Robert S. Blackwell (1823-1863) began studying law under the direction of Orville H. Browning in Quincy, Illinois, later beginning his own practice in Rushville. He served as the state's attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit from 1848 to 1852. Blackwell also had an active practice before the Illinois Supreme Court, where he opposed Abraham Lincoln in six cases and worked with him in one case. He was co-counsel with Lincoln in at least two cases in the federal courts. In 1852, he moved to Chicago, where he had a series of partnerships with other lawyers. Blackwell authored A Practical Treatise on the Power to Sell Land for the Non-Payment of Taxes Assessed Thereon (1855) and, with Illinois Supreme Court Justices Walter B. Scates and Samuel H. Treat, compiled an edition of the revised statutes of Illinois in 1858.
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