Manuscripts From Abraham Lincoln’s Law Offices to Auction
Heritage Auctions
Abraham Lincoln's handwritten strategy blueprint for his 1858 Senate race against Stephen A. Douglas
Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten autographed strategy blueprint for his 1858 Senate race against Stephen A. Douglas leads Heritage Auctions' The Alfred Orendorff Archive: Treasures from the Law Offices of Abraham Lincoln on July 30.
Alfred Orendorff was an Illinois-born attorney, Civil War veteran, and heir to the legal firm that Abraham Lincoln founded. He preserved a major collection of Lincoln material, never publicly offered since their creation during Lincoln’s legal career, descending directly from a family connected to the succession line of the Lincoln & Herndon law office.
The collection includes Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten, autographed strategy blueprint for his 1858 Senate race against Stephen A. Douglas, an eight-page analysis of the election that made him a national figure. In this document Lincoln utilizes the election data printed in the newspaper clipping to analyze Illinois legislative districts, calculate Republican and Democratic prospects, and identify the contested districts most likely to determine the 1858 United States Senate race. It is estimated to sell for $100,000–$200,000.
Also going under the hammer is Abraham Lincoln and John Todd Stuart’s office fee book that is signed by Abraham Lincoln 19 times. Lincoln became a partner in April 1837, shortly after being licensed to practice law by the Illinois Supreme Court. This book is generally organized as a chronological record of dates and case names, accompanied by notations concerning each matter, including the fees charged by Stuart & Lincoln (estimate: $100,000–$200,000).
The sale also includes Lincoln's secretary desk, preserved in the homes of General Alfred Orendorff and his descendants for more than a century, and which has remained largely unknown to Lincoln scholars with only rare public outings. It is estimated to sell for $100,000–$200,000. Alongside it is a table from the Lincoln & Herndon Law Firm with a rectangular poplar top over a walnut base and two long drawers on baluster-turnings on square legs, terminating in turned feet (estimate: $50,000–$100,000).
1/3
Heritage Auctions
Abraham Lincoln and John Todd Stuart autograph office fee book signed by Lincoln 19 times
2/3
Heritage Auctions
Accounting of office furniture and supplies for the Lincoln & Herndon law firm
3/3
Heritage Auctions
Lincoln Empire walnut and poplar two-drawer table, circa 1845
Other highlights include:
three autographed documents comprising a two-and-a-half-page bifolium legal declaration with an integral fold at top edge, a page of litigation notes entitled “Proof” and a one-page affidavit letter, all signed by Lincoln (estimate: $50,000–$100,000)
a Lincoln signed legal opinion for the Illinois Central Railroad on who owned the American Frontier (estimate: $20,000–$30,000)
a Lincoln & Herndon Law Office shopping list prepared in Herndon’s hand recording expenses incurred in the operation of the Lincoln & Herndon law office during the first years of the partnership (estimate: $10,000–$20,000)
Lincoln’s autograph land indenture for Joshua Fry Speed, the Kentucky merchant and his lifelong friend (estimate: $10,000–$20,000)
the federal land grant for Lincoln’s first known land purchase, made on March 16, 1836, while he was serving in the Illinois House of Representatives, a 47-acre tract near the proposed town site of Huron, Illinois, approximately 12 miles north of New Salem, where Lincoln lived between 1831 and 1837 (estimate: $10,000–$20,000)
