Sparks Commentary: Yes, Blackstone’s “Commentaries” influenced Abraham Lincoln (and here’s the proof)

“The election of 1834 came, and [Abraham Lincoln] was then elected to the Legislature [of Illinois] by the highest vote cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private conversation he encouraged [Abe to] study law. After the election [Abe] borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in good earnest. He studied with nobody. He still mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. When the Legislature met, the law books were dropped, but were taken up again at the end of the session.”

– Abraham Lincoln’s “Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps” (circa June 1860), in which Lincoln strangely is referring to himself in the third person (as shown above)

There was an official campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 …

Sir William Blackstone died nearly three decades before Abraham Lincoln was born. But Blackstone would nonetheless have an influence on the young Lincoln through one of his books, as many others have noted. In the year 1860, William Dean Howells wrote the “Life of Abraham Lincoln,” the official campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln (not to be confused with the above-quoted autobiography). This campaign biography was subject to revisions by Lincoln himself. Lincoln did indeed make some modifications whenever he deemed it necessary, but he did not alter the part about Blackstone that I’m going to quote here.

Sir William Blackstone

… which briefly talked about Lincoln’s legal education back in the 1830’s

The passage is about Lincoln’s legal education, which seems to have been gained sometime back in the 1830’s. Lincoln was in his twenties when getting this education. Thus, here is the portion of this biography about Lincoln’s reading of Sir William Blackstone:

William Dean Howells, author of this campaign biography of Lincoln

It says that Lincoln did so much hard reading that people questioned his sanity

“So great was [Lincoln’s] ardor in study, at this time, that shrewd suspicions with regard to Offutt's clerk got abroad; the honest neighbors began to question whether one who would voluntarily spend all his leisure in ‘poring over miserable books,’ could be altogether right in his mind.

Sir William Blackstone

It further relates that Lincoln bought “an old copy of Blackstone” at an auction …

“The peculiar manner in which he afterward pursued his law studies, was not calculated to allay popular feeling. He bought an old copy of Blackstone, one day, at auction, in Springfield, and on his return to New Salem, attacked the work with characteristic energy.

Sir William Blackstone

… and “pore[d] over” it, often in the great outdoors, under the shade of an oak tree

“His favorite place of study was a wooded knoll near New Salem, where he threw himself under a wide-spreading oak, and expansively made a reading desk of the hillside. Here he would pore over Blackstone day after day, shifting his position as the sun rose and sank, so as to keep in the shade, and utterly unconscious of everything but the principles of common law. People went by, and he took no account of them; the salutations of acquaintances were returned with silence, or a vacant stare; and altogether the manner of the absorbed student was not unlike that of one distraught.

Statue of Sir William Blackstone

The passage ends with some well-deserved praise of Lincoln’s knowledge and abilities

“Since that day, his habits of study have changed somewhat, but his ardor remains unabated, and he is now regarded as one of the best informed, as he is certainly the ablest, man in Illinois.”

– William Dean Howells’ “Life of Abraham Lincoln” (1860)

Abraham Lincoln in his thirties, who really was clean-shaven in his youth

Lincoln never altered this particular passage, although he was given opportunity to do so

Thus, we know that Lincoln would then “pore over Blackstone” day after day, when he was trying to become a lawyer.

Abraham Lincoln

When someone asked Lincoln to instruct another man about the law in 1858 …

In 1858 (long after Lincoln’s legal education), a man named James T. Thornton would write a letter to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was then a former Congressman, but he was not yet a presidential candidate. In it, Mr. Thornton recommended an aspiring lawyer named John H. Widner, and asked Lincoln to instruct him about the law. In that same year, Lincoln answered him, saying:

Simon Greenleaf, whose work “Treatise on the Law of Evidence” is mentioned below

… Lincoln recommended that the man just read “Blackstone's Commentaries” …

“I am absent altogether too much to be a suitable instructer for a law-student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructer. That is precisely the way I came to the law. Let Mr. Widner read Blackstone's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleading's---Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Story's Equity Pleading's, get a license, and go to the practice, and still keep reading. That is my judgment of the cheapest, quickest, and best way for Mr. Widner to make a lawyer of himself.” (Source: Letter to James T. Thornton, 2 December 1858)

Joseph Story, whose works “Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence” and “Equity Pleadings” are mentioned above

… and some other law books (and then get a license)

As you can see, Abraham Lincoln recommends several books here, but the first one on the list is “Blackstone's Commentaries.” Or to use the full title, Sir William Blackstone's “Commentaries on the Laws of England.”

Joseph Story, whose work “Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence” is mentioned a second time below

In 1860, Lincoln advised another aspiring lawyer to “Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries … reading it carefully through, say twice”

In 1860, John M. Brockman asked Lincoln what is “the best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law.” Now a presidential candidate, Lincoln answered in September 1860, two months before he was first elected president of the United States. Lincoln’s answer is as follows: “The mode is very simple, though laborious, and tedious. It is only to get the books, and read, and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after reading it carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, & Story's Equity &c. in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.” (Source: Letter to John M. Brockman, 25 September 1860)

Bust of Joseph Story

This was the only book that he here recommended reading twice

Therefore, Lincoln said to “Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries.” He also recommended “reading it carefully through, say twice” – the only book on this list that he here recommended reading twice. (Incidentally, Lincoln elsewhere praised the jurist James Kent – but that’s a subject for a different post focused on the aforementioned Joseph Story.)

Abraham Lincoln

Conclusion: Lincoln considered “Blackstone's Commentaries” to be of great importance

Thus, Lincoln twice recommended a study of Blackstone's “Commentaries” to people that wanted to enter the legal profession. Although I’m not entering the legal profession myself, I’ve now read the work that Lincoln thus recommended. It was a special experience to be able to read something that Abraham Lincoln read, and thus get a better understanding of his legal education.

Footnote: An alternative account of how Lincoln acquired his copy of Blackstone

There is an alternative account of how Lincoln acquired his copy of Blackstone. This comes from a Lincoln acquaintance named Alban Jasper Conant. In “My Acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln” (published 1893), Conant argued that Lincoln found his copy of Blackstone’s “Commentaries” in a barrel, and bought it from the owner. This found its way into a famous biography of Lincoln by Carl Sandburg. Later on, this account even found its way into the 1939 film “Young Mr. Lincoln” (directed by John Ford).

Some have found these accounts to be contradictory, but it seems possible that both of them could actually be true. This is because Blackstone’s “Commentaries” is divided into four volumes, which could easily have been acquired at separate times and in different ways. For example, Lincoln could easily have acquired the first volume of this work from the aforementioned barrel, and then gotten the other three volumes from the aforementioned auction. I do not say that this is necessarily the case, or even that the barrel story is necessarily accurate. But it would seem that the two stories can indeed be reconciled with each other.

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Sir William Blackstone

An overview of William Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England”