Abraham Lincoln, Esq.

November 1, 2010

Lincoln legal scholars Billings (Salmon P. Chase Coll. of Law, Northern Kentucky Univ.) and Williams (former chief justice, Supreme Court of Rhode Island) have assembled an instructive collection of 12 essays, five previously published, assessing Lincoln's legal career, writing and arguing skills, law practice, and relationship with local, state, and national politics, as informed by his experience in and with the law (he practiced law for almost a quarter century before becoming President). The contributors draw heavily on the newly available Lincoln Legal Papers to discover a Lincoln who was careful in preparing briefs, did much business in debt collection and other mundane but necessary work that helped develop the state and the economy, and used the practice and camaraderie of the law to build friendships and knowledge essential to his political interests. They agree that law prepared Lincoln for presidential leadership, especially as it attuned him to the importance of argument, audience, and constitutional strictures. VERDICT The book offers no surprises in an already rich literature on Lincoln, but it does bring together useful demonstrations of what the law meant to Lincoln and what Lincoln meant to the law. A valuable addition for serious students of Lincoln or of American antebellum legal practice.--Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

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