A Court Order Written and Signed by Judge Stephen A. Douglas

Everyone who has read the Lincoln – Douglas debates knows that Lincoln always referred to Douglas not as Senator Douglas, but as Judge Douglas. And indeed Douglas was a judge earlier in his career. In February 1841 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court, though he held those duties only until 1843, when he was elected to Congress. Nauvoo was in Douglas’s district, and while on the bench in 1841, Douglas set aside a Missouri writ to extradite Mormon prophet Joseph Smith for charges still pending there.

Autograph Document Signed, Quincy, Illinois, in the “Adams County Circuit Court at the September term thereof 1841.” The case involved Henry and Adelaide Mane, executors to decedent Charles Meinkie, who in April were authorized by Douglas to sell some real estate.  They filed a report as required by law, and in this order their actions were accepted by the court: “Thereupon it is ordered by the court…that all the proceedings of the petitioners under such decree be hereby approved and confirmed.”?The Judge then confirms title in the property to the purchaser at the sale, Hippolet Drouhet. Documents from Douglas’s brief judgeship are uncommon, particularly those completely in his hand.

By addressing Douglas as Judge rather than Senator, Lincoln hoped to minimize any advantage Douglas may have had due to his national recognition and experience (and Lincoln’s lack of the same), and remind Illinoians that Douglas was, after all, on the same par as all of then.