Sold – The Final Exchange of Communications Between Lincoln and Herndon

In 1844, Lincoln’s law practice was growing and he took William Herndon as his junior partner. They prepared and argued cases for the federal courts, the Illinois Supreme Court and the state’s Eighth Judicial Circuit, which covered most of east-central Illinois. Lincoln rode the circuit for about six months during the year, while Herndon usually stayed in Springfield. The Lincoln-Herndon law office was on the second floor of a brick building on the west side of Springfield’s main square, across from the courthouse. Visitors mounted a flight of stairs and passed down a dark hallway to a medium-sized room in the rear of the building. The upper half of the door had a pane of beveled glass, with a curtain hanging from a wire, on brass rings.

Lincoln would unlock the door, open it, and draw the curtain as he closed the door behind him. Walking in,

papers were strewn everywhere: on the table, on the floor, on the five cane-bottomed chairs and the sofa

where the senior partner of the firm liked to stretch out his full length, his head on the arm of the sofa. There

he reclined every morning, after arriving at nine, clean-shaven. He read newspapers and books, always aloud, much to the annoyance of Herndon, who found the high, tuneful voice, with its chuckling interludes and asides, a distraction from the warrants and writs and invoices.

Historian David Donald describes the office as "a center of political activity, of gossip and friendly banter, and of such remote problems as the merits of Walt Whitman’s poetry." Even while he was preparing to leave for the White House, Lincoln was already thinking of returning. He told Herndon not to take down the sign, saying "If I live I’m coming back sometime, and then we’ll go right on practising law as if nothing had ever happened." Their legendary firm of Lincoln and Herndon continued, and under the same signage, until Lincoln’s death in 1865.

Lincoln was a 23-year-old clerk living in central Illinois when Governor John Reynolds called for volunteers to put down a threat to the settlers of northwestern Illinois from the Sac and Fox Indian tribes. In his 1860 autobiography, Lincoln said his employer’s "business was failing — had almost failed — when the Black Hawk war of 1832 broke out. Abraham joined a volunteer company, and, to his own surprise, was elected captain of it. He says he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction. He went to the campaign, served near three months, met the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but was in no battle."

According to the Illinois Black Hawk War veterans list, one of the young men in “A. Lincoln’s Company” was Robert S. Plunkett. Whether the men kept in touch in the interim, when Plunkett sought a divorce from his second wife, he retained the firm of Lincoln and Herndon as counsel. The case was filed in 1849, and on March 23, 1850, before the Sangamon County Circuit Court, the firm won the divorce for Plunkett, with Lincoln writing the court decree. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Robert’s son John enlisted on Lincoln’s first call for 75,000 men, joining the 7th Illinois Infantry. In August 1862, he enlisted in Co. F, 114th Illinois Infantry, for three years.

When his partner Lincoln went to Washington, Herndon initially tried to maintain contact between them. He found it increasingly difficult to get Lincoln’s ear, however, in part because he was usually making requests of the beleaguered President. By 1863 the correspondence between the men had become erratic, and in that year Lincoln wrote his last letter directly to Herndon. By the late summer of 1864, Herndon must have been hesitant to write to Lincoln for a favor for a client. However, he apparently made an exception for the President’s long-time acquaintence, Robert S. Plunkett, who said his son was ill and wanted to get him out of the army.

Autograph Letter Signed of Herndon, Springfield, Illinois, August 30, 1864, to “His Exc. A Lincoln.” “Mr. Robert S. Plunkett, who has a minor son in the war, wishes to get his boy out of the army. The grounds are these: 1st The boy is physically unable to do military duty. The boy has what is commonly called the “sun stroke” and is continuously subject to it when he exerts himself or is on the tramp & 2nd The boy is a minor and joined the army without his father’s consent. He, the boy, belongs to Company F, 114 Reg. of Illinois Volunteers, now stationed at Memphis, Tennessee or about that city. Please give Mr. Plunkett such attention in this matter as you know he deserves.” The letter is signed, “Your friend, W.H. Herndon.” The idea that John was a minor was the pleading of an advocate and not accurate, although whether the exaggeration was the senior Plunkett’s or Herndon’s is unknown. In any event, Lincoln appears to have known the truth, yet wanted to help. He wrote in response to Herndon’s request, on the verso of Herndon’s letter, September 3, 1864. “Being satisfied that a surgeon’s certificate showing that this man – John N. Plunkett – Co. F, 144th Regt. of Ills. Vol. is unfit for service, he is hereby discharged.” War Department records indicate that on October 18, 1864, Plunkett was discharged on account of physical disability, by special order of the President. This is the last known piece of paper ever to be written on, and in effect be exchanged by, both partners. It is also likely the final (and may be the only) piece of the Lincoln/Herndon correspondence in private hands.

Herndon would write once more. On February 11, 1865, he sent Lincoln a check for $133 drawn on the First National Bank of Springfield, as Lincoln’s share of current collections of the law firm, along with a letter simply containing a break-down of the sums. The letter and uncashed check were found in Lincoln’s papers after he died, unanswered and unacted upon, just laid away. Those papers are in the Library of Congress.