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The 8th Circuit of Lincoln's day was entirely different from today's. But Lincoln practiced extensively in all of this part of Illinois. He was often in Menard and Morgan and other counties on the Illinois prairie.

He defended many murder cases, and in Hancock he tried the only one in which his client was hung. In Cass, he defended his most famous murder trial, that of “Duff” Armstrong, frequently called the Almanac Trial.

Most recall Lincoln the president – the saviour of the Union, the Great Emancipator, the visionary, a century before his time. But his profession considered him a consummate lawyer.

His own original notes reveal a clear legal mind, the exceptional power of documentation, and a superb talent for analytical reasoning. No Illinois lawyer of his day could do so many things so well, a fact which was ungrudgingly conceded by his colleagues at the bar.

On the circuit in the early days of Illinois, a judge had little recourse if he needed to be absent for a time during a session of court, whether due to illness or a rough night before. In an effort to handle his caseload expeditiously, a judge would select an attorney from those in attendance, and appoint that attorney judge in his absence.

This was a common practice in Illinois at the time and generally accepted because the attorneys chosen to replace the judge were experienced and knowledgeable men.

As a mature lawyer, Abraham Lincoln heard many cases for Judge David Davis as evidenced by Lincoln's handwritten notes in the judge's dockets. Lincoln sat for Judge Davis in four counties of the 8th Circuit (Sangamon, Champaign, Logan and DeWitt), where he heard 300 cases from 1854 to 1859.

In 1857, the Champaign County circuit clerk recalled that “Judge Davis frequently called Mr. Lincoln to take the bench, while he went out for exercise. A courtesy I don't remember of seeing him extend to any other attorney, of the 20 or more in attendance.”

This was an “irregular practice” and entailed a bit of deception. There was, of course, no statutory authority for this practice. A nagging doubt about the legality of such a substitution, however, is suggested by the absence of these substitute judges' names in the court record.

In my home county, at the October 1843 term of the Cass County Circuit Court, David and Michael O'Brien sued Henry H. Hall, founder of the City of Virginia, for a $500 debt. During the course of the trial, Judge Lockwood left the bench for a period of one-half hour, and with the approval of both parties appointed Henry E. Dummer, a well-respected attorney, to sit in his place.

After hearing all the evidence, a jury decided for the plaintiffs, and ordered Hall to pay $350 plus costs. On appeal, the judgment was upheld on procedural grounds.

Earlier decisions had disallowed attorneys making “judicial decisions,” while sitting on the bench, and this case stopped the practice altogether and required a judge to be present throughout a trial.

Justice Scott wrote, “The argument of a cause is as much a part of the trial as the hearing of evidence.” Lawyer Lincoln would have agreed.

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Mr. Lincoln was a consummate lawyer. And on his prairie, we are his professional heirs. Lincoln's countless documented words reflected his incisive grasp of the basic problems of man and his power of prophesy. Listen to his counsel:

“Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries and in colleges; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

“In short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and young, the rich and poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes, tongues, colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.”