Lincoln's Last Law Office

Abraham Lincoln's third and final law partner was William H. Herndon, who was nine years younger than Lincoln, and they practiced together from 1844 to 1861 in several rented offices, their last a rear room on the second floor of a building on this site. During the 1860 presidential campaign, Leslie's Weekly published a drawing of the office interior that contradicted contemporary descriptions of the room as dingy and untidy; its windows overlooked back alleys and tar-covered roofs, and in hot weather it sometimes carried a caustic resin smell. Lincoln teased Herndon on arriving at work, asking, "Billy---how is your bones philosophy this morning?" Herndon, working in the shadow of his celebrated senior partner, did much of the legal research for their cases and managed the office during Lincoln's frequent absences. After Lincoln died, Herndon sought to write the definitive biography of his famous friend, collecting reminiscences from many people, and his interview notes, correspondence, and biography became important sources on Lincoln before the presidency. Mary Lincoln and others were greatly offended by some of Herndon's allegations, including that Lincoln was a religious skeptic and that his only true love was Ann Rutledge of New Salem; Mary called Herndon a "hopeless inebriate" and a "dirty dog," and Herndon called Mary "the female wildcat of the age." Herndon battled alcoholism and died in relative poverty in 1891. The office was one of the last places Lincoln visited before leaving Springfield to become president: in the late afternoon of February 10, 1861, his last full day in Springfield, he came to discuss unfinished legal business and reminisce with Herndon, then asked that their doorway shingle be left in place until his work in Washington was done and he could return to resume their law practice, though he never crossed the office threshold again.

Springfield, Illinois · United States