Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

1 p.; 12 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (317 x 190 mm). Accomplished and signed by Court Clerk C[harles].R. Matheny. Circular blind-stamped Sangamon County seal in lower left. Docketing and notations on verso, by Sheriff Garret Elkin recording payments from Berry, etc.; creasing from old folds, wear and soiling along same; unevenly toned.

AS A 25-YEAR-OLD GENERAL STORE PROPRIETOR, LINCOLN'S PROPERTY IS SEIZED FOR AN UNPAID DEBT.

"Abram Lincoln & Wm. F. Berry are convicted..."

A remarkable and early legal document related to Abraham Lincoln's failed New Salem, Illinois general store with partner William F. Berry, being a writ of execution against them for failure to pay a debt (in the case Watkins v. Lincoln & Berry). Here, the Sangamon County Court authorizes the Sangamon County Sheriff to seize their "goods and chattels, lands, and tenements" in order to satisfy a creditor.

On 14 May 1833, Lincoln and Berry paid the firm Knapp and Pogue a promissory note for $52.36, for good's for their store. Knapp and Pogue then assigned the note to Menard County farmer William Watkins (1803-76), one of the firm's livestock suppliers. After Lincoln and Berry failed to pay Watkins, Watkins sued them in the Justice of the Peace Court to recover the debt. Berry admitted liability, and the court ruled for Watkins and awarded him $53. Lincoln appealed the judgment to the Sangamon County Circuit Court, and they again ruled for Watkins, and awarded him $57.86 in damages. To settle the debt Lincoln's surveying equipment was seized by the County Sheriff and was auctioned. A friend of Lincoln's, James Short, who lived near New Salem, went to the auction, purchased the surveying instruments, and other items, for $120 and returned them to Lincoln.

Lincoln, along with Berry, who had served with him in the Black Hawk War, opened their New Salem, Illinois general store in early 1833. At the time, Lincoln was only 24 years old and trying to rise above his frontier origins. Defeated in his first run for public office a few months prior, and trying to strike out on his own path as a young adult, he chased a variety of entrepreneurial pursuits. His and Berry's country store was among his first business ventures, and was one of three general stores in New Salem. They stocked it with a variety of goods and merchandise, some obtained through Augustus Knapp and Thomas Pogue, prominent Beardstown, Illinois merchants that traded in agricultural products, and operated a flour mill, general store, distillery, and pork-packing plant. Despite their efforts, neither Lincoln nor Berry had a knack for properly running the business, and through a combination of lending credit too easily and investing poorly, they became seriously overextended and sank deeper and deeper into debt. This was exacerbated by Berry's heavy drinking and Lincoln's penchant for reading and telling anecdotes on the job, instead of tending to the store's many responsibilities. Critically, these problems were compounded by New Salem's dwindling growth, which left many of its residents without money to pay for their goods. While Lincoln's amicable personality as the store's proprietor endeared him to many of the townspeople and earn their trust--contributing to his eventual election to public office--it did not help his business. As a result, the store floundered, and as Lincoln later lamented, in only a short period of time, it “winked out.” This debt, among others (see lot 6) was referred to jokingly by Lincoln as his "national debt", which he was only able to fully pay off well into the 1840s while as a sitting United States Congressman. Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln 125924; see Pratt, The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln, p. 13; Billings & Williams, Abraham Lincoln, Esq..., p. 86

Provenance:

Christie's, 9 December 1993, lot 190

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California