Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 20:3 (Mar 2024)
Article: Sir William Blackstone And The Jurisprudence Of Abraham Lincoln
Author: H. Stuart Atkins

Sir William Blackstone And The Jurisprudence Of Abraham Lincoln

H. Stuart Atkins

Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–69) is the most important legal treatise ever written in the English language. It was the dominant lawbook in England and America in the century after its publication and played a unique role in the development of the fledgling American legal system.1

As Blackstone’s Commentaries were the dominant lawbook in England and America2 during the 19th century. So also were they dominant in the mind of Abraham Lincoln. Much of the depth and moral tone to Lincoln’s legal philosophy may strongly be attributed to the influence of these commentaries. As we will later note, the study of Blackstone engaged Lincoln’s intellect in a manner that Lincoln finds incomparable in his legal career. In short, the thinking of Blackstone was highly instrumental in shaping the personal and public jurisprudence of Abraham Lincoln. The legal epistemology of Blackstone had profound influence on the moral, political, and legal decisions of Lincoln’s life.

The Discovery Of Blackstone:

Lincoln’s chance discovery of Blackstone’s commentaries is both comical and ironic.3 In 1831 (age 22), while working as a clerk in the grocery store of Denton Offutt in New Salem, Illinois, Lincoln purchased an obscure and worthless barrel which contained his Blackstone treasure. Lincoln writes the following in a letter to A.J. Conant:

One day a man who was migrating to the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room in his wagon, and which contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, and paid him half dollar for it. Without further examination I put it away in the store and forgot all about it. Some time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel and emptying it on the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries.

I began to read those famous works, and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I read the more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them.4

The above account shows the engrossing impact these commentaries had on Lincoln’s young mind. In all prob...