Tuesday, March 21, 1854.Jacksonville, IL.
| In the Morgan County Circuit Court, Lincoln represents defendant
James Dunlap in the case of Selby v.
Dunlap. In a series of editorials, Paul Selby, the publisher of the
Jacksonville Journal, accused Dunlap of political and financial
misdeeds. Dunlap allegedly beat Selby with a cane. Selby is suing Dunlap in an
action of trespass vi et armis and he seeks $10,000 in damages. On this day,
the jury "hear[s] the testimony . . . and part of the arguments of Counsel"
before recessing until the next morning. Lincoln spends the night at the
Mansion House hotel, located at the "corner of North Main street and the
square." Declaration, filed 30 September 1853, Selby
v. Dunlap, case file 1328; Order, 21 March 1854, Selby v.
Dunlap, Law Record I, 5, both in Morgan County Circuit Court, Morgan
County Courthouse, Jacksonville, IL; Daily Jacksonville
Constitutionist (IL), 21 March 1854, 2:5; 23 March 1854, 2:1; 25 March
1854, 2:1; Frank J. Heinl, An Epitome of Jacksonville History to
1875 (Jacksonville, IL: n.p., 1925), 19; Charles M. Eames,
Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (Jacksonville, IL:
Daily Journal Steam Job Printing Office, 1885), 158. |