Lincoln writes and signs Lincoln & Herndon to mechanics lien bill in Stigleman, Johnson & Co. v. Paddleford & Co., Sangamon Circuit Court case. Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

In the evening, Lincoln is at the statehouse, where he speaks to a group that seeks to encourage Illinois's black residents to relocate to Liberia, in Africa. A newspaper reports, "Mr. Lincoln was emphatically non-committal, and no man could have handled the subject with more grace and...tact. He stated that it was a subject entered into by men of all parties and shades of thought, and that if it could be accomplished without trouble...he would be in favor of the project...No one can object to this position." Outline for Speech to the Colonization Society, [4 January 1855], CW, 2:298-301; Sunday Morning Republican (St. Louis, MO), 7 January 1855, 2:5-6.

In Clark v. Stigleman et al. in U.S. Circuit Court, before court at July term, 1854, Lincoln files Calvin Stigleman's affidavit for continuance. Photocopy.

He writes, signs, and swears his own affidavit in Stigleman, Johnson & Co. v. Paddleford & Co.Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

In letter to Washburne, Lincoln sums up situation in legislature as it affects his candidacy. "I understand myself as having 26 committals; and I do not think any other one man has ten." But "I do not know that it is much advantage to have the largest number of votes at the start." Lincoln and B. S. Edwards write legal opinion regarding settlement of estates of Joseph Smith and James Bradford. Abraham Lincoln to Elihu B. Washburne, 6 December [January] 1855, CW, 2:303-4; Opinion Concerning the Estates of Joseph Smith and James M. Bradford, 6 January 1855, CW, 2:301-3.