A MAP MADE BY LINCOLN OF A PIECE OF ROAD IN MENARD COUNTY, ILLINOIS.—HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.
Photographed from the original for this biography. This map, which, as here reproduced, is about one-half the size of the original, accompanied Lincoln’s report of the survey of a part of the road between Athens and Sangamon town. For making this map, Lincoln received fifty cents. He received three dollars for the day he spent in relocating the road. (See report, page [198].) The road evidently was located “on good ground,” and was “necessary and proper,” as the report says, for it is still the main travelled highway leading into the country south of Athens, Menard County.
“Get books, and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone’s ‘Commentaries,’ and after reading carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty’s ‘Pleadings,’ Greenleaf’s ‘Evidence,’ and Story’s ‘Equity,’ in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.”
Having secured a book of legal forms, he was soon able to write deeds, contracts, and all sorts of legal instruments; and he was frequently called upon by his neighbors to perform services of this kind. “In 1834,” says Daniel Green Burner, Berry and Lincoln’s clerk, “my father, Isaac Burner, sold out to Henry Onstott, and he wanted a deed written. I knew how handy Lincoln was that way, and suggested that we get him. We found him sitting on a stump. ‘All right,’ said he, when informed what we wanted. ‘If you will bring me a pen and ink and a piece of paper I will write it here.’ I brought him these articles, and, picking up a shingle and putting it on his knee for a desk, he wrote out the deed.”
As there was no practising lawyer nearer than Springfield, Lincoln was often employed to act the part of advocate before the village squire, at that time Bowling Green. He realized that this experience was valuable, and never, so far as known, demanded or accepted a fee for his services in these petty cases.
Justice was sometimes administered in a summary way in Squire Green’s court. Precedents and the venerable rules of law had little weight. The “Squire” took judicial notice of a great many facts, often going so far as to fill, simultaneously, the two functions of witness and court. But his decisions were generally just.
James McGrady Rutledge tells a story in which several of Lincoln’s old friends figure, and which illustrates the legal practices of New Salem. “Jack Kelso,” says Mr. Rutledge, “owned, or claimed to own, a white hog. It was also claimed by John Ferguson. The hog had often wandered around Bowling Green’s place, and he was somewhat acquainted with it. Ferguson sued Kelso, and the case was tried before ‘Squire’ Green. The plaintiff produced two witnesses who testified positively that the hog belonged to him. Kelso had nothing to offer, save his own unsupported claim.
“‘Are there any more witnesses?’ inquired the court.
“He was informed that there were no more.
“‘Well,’ said ‘Squire’ Green, ‘the two witnesses we have heard have sworn to a —— lie. I know this shoat, and I know it belongs to Jack Kelso. I therefore decide this case in his favor.’”
An extract from the record of the County Commissioners’ Court illustrates the nature of the cases that came before the justice of the peace in Lincoln’s day. It also shows the price put upon the privilege of working on Sunday, in 1832: