"If you will let Mr. E. G. Johns have any amount of oil not exceeding ten dollars in value," writes Lincoln to Messrs. Converse & Priest, "I will pay you the money for it in three months from date."Abraham Lincoln to Converse & Priest, 1 October 1847, CW, 1:405.

[Johns was Springfield house painter.]

[Someone deposits $28.74 in cash in Lincoln's account at John Irwin & Co. John Irwin & Co., Ledger and Journals, 2:48, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.]

[Vermilion County Circuit Court commences fall term.]

[Bill in Miller v. Miller et al., written by Lincoln and signed "Lincoln and Herndon for complt." is filed in Menard County Circuit Court in Petersburg. Photocopy.]

[Edgar County Circuit Court begins its session in Paris.]

Lincoln represents defendant in Linder v. Fleenor in Coles County Circuit Court. Jury finds defendant guilty of slander and assess plaintiff's damages at $1,000. He remits $950 of this amount. Record.

Pleas, joinders, and replication in Lincoln's handwriting are in Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Town is tense over impending slave trial.

Anthony Bryant and family, having run away from their Kentucky master, Robert Matson, were placed in county jail. Gideon Ashmore and Hiram Rutherford petitioned for writ of habeas corpus. Justice Wilson of Supreme Court accompanies Judge Treat to Charleston to hear case. Rutherford tries to retain Lincoln but he has already agreed to appear for Matson.

Ficklin and Constable appear before Wilson and Treat in behalf of petitioners, with Linder and Lincoln representing Matson. Court orders slaves discharged from sheriff's custody and from "all servitude whatever from henceforth and forever." At night, Matson, disgruntled at verdict, leaves state without paying his attorneys their fee. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1:392-97; Record; Charleston (Ill.) Globe, 27 October 1847; Illinois Law Review, I, 366.

Lincoln, for complainant, writes and signs declaration, pleas, and instructions for jury in Watson v. Gill. Jury finds defendant guilty and awards Lincoln's client $215. Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

[Journey probably continues next day.]

"The Governor is not here," writes Lincoln to Morris & Brown, Chicago attorneys, "and will not be, it is thought, for about ten days. Unfortunately for my attending to the business you sent, I start for Washington, by way of Kentucky, on next monday." He will see that matter is presented to governor, however. Abraham Lincoln to Buckner S. Morris and John J. Brown, 19 October 1847, CW, 1:405-6.

Having received another letter from Morris & Brown, Lincoln consults Logan. "If the Governor shall arrive before I leave, Logan & I will both attend to the matter," he assures them, "and he will attend to it if he does not come till after I leave; all upon the condition that the Governor shall not have acted upon the matter, before his arrival here. . . . The case is a clear one on our side; but whether the Gov. will view it so is another thing." Abraham Lincoln to Buckner S. Morris and John J. Brown, 21 October 1847, CW, 1:406.

Prior to departing for Washington, D. C., where he will take a seat in Congress, Lincoln writes and signs an agreement between himself and Cornelius Ludlum, of Springfield. Ludlum will occupy Lincoln's home while the family is away. Lincoln stipulates, "for the term of one year, to commence on the first day of November . . . the said Ludlum agrees to pay said Lincoln the sum of ninety dollars in quarter yearly payments, to be especially careful to prevent any destruction by fire, [and] to allow said Lincoln, the use of the North-up-stairs room, during the term, in which to store his furniture."Lease Contract Between Abraham Lincoln and Cornelius Ludlum, 23 October 1847, CW, 1:406-7.

Lincoln family leaves for Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln to Buckner S. Morris and John J. Brown, 19 October 1847, CW, 1:405-6.

[In Petersburg, Menard County Circuit Court grants divorce in Bowen v. Bowen. Lincoln wrote court decree. Photocopy.]

Daily Era of October 28, 1847, lists "A. Lincoln and family" and "Joshua F. Speed" as guests at Scott's Hotel, southwest corner 3rd and Market Sts., W. C. Scott, prop. They must have registered on 27th for their names to appear in paper on 28th.

("Mr. Lincoln, the member of Congress elect from this district, has just set out on his way to the city of Washington," reports Illinois Journal (formerly Sangamo Journal). "His family is with him; they intend to visit their friends and relatives in Kentucky before they take up the line of march for the seat of government.... He will find many men in Congress who possess twice the good looks, and not half the good sense, of our own representative.") Illinois Journal (Springfield), 28 October 1847, 2:2.

[O. H. Browning and family of Quincy, Illinois, made trip to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1850. They required a week to travel from St. Louis. Evidently Lincoln's trip required the same time.]

[The Lincolns traveled from St. Louis by boat probably to Frankfort, Kentucky. From there Lexington and Ohio Railroad, fore-runner of Louisville and Nashville, ran to Lexington. Journey probably continues through November 2, 1847. John W. Starr, Lincoln and the Railroads: A Biographical Study (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1927), 47.