Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865) Lincoln was 38 years old at the time of the trial and was
two weeks away from leaving for Washington D.C. to take his seat as a
Representative from Illinois. He had married Mary Todd in 1842 and they
had two children, Robert age four and Edward about a year and half. He
had been admitted to the bar in 1837 and spent much of his time
traveling with the circuit court on the 8th Judicial Circuit ranging
from northwest of Springfield to Paris near the Indiana state line. The
8th circuit included Paris and Shelbyville, which forced the court and
its lawyers to pass through Charleston. The lawyers often took extra
work here as they passed, though Lincoln was more attached to Coles
County because his father and step-mother, Thomas and Sarah Bush
Lincoln, lived south of town at Goosenest Prairie. Lincoln made the
trip to Charleston in October 1847 for several reasons: he had a few
other minor matters before the court held over from previous sessions;
he probably wanted to say goodbye to his family before leaving for
Washington; and he may have wanted to be involved in the Matson trial
which promised to be of some import and that would set precedent for how
Illinois felt on the issue. He represents Robert Matson, the slave
owner, at the trial basing his argument on the fact that the slaves were
in transit and not permanently settled here, hence they should remain
slaves. He never wrote or spoke about this trial leaving his motivations
to be surmised by historians.