A Lincoln legal document is any record, letter, document, contemporary printed account, or after-the-fact recollection that relates directly to Abraham Lincoln’s law practice during the years 1836 to 1861.
♦It may be an original, a copy, or a transcript of a legal document or correspondence written and/or signed by Lincoln and other participants in the legal process, or the practice of law.
♦It may be a record of the court in the form of an entry in clerk’s dockets, judge’s dockets, court record books, execution dockets, judgment dockets, fee books, memorandum books, or other official or unofficial records maintained by the court clerks.
♦It may be a newspaper article, public notice, or advertisement.
♦It may be an unpublished reminiscence, journal, diary, or memoir of a contemporary or participant in Lincoln-related litigation or nonlitigation matters.