Lincoln and the Law from the Library of Congress
"Lincoln’s effort to restore the Union and his contributions to American political thought and its ideals of freedom often obscure the fact that he had been a successful attorney. Lincoln himself admitted his ambition lay in politics and not in the law, “My forte is as a Statesman, rather than a Prosecutor.” Even if the law was Lincoln’s “secondary” avocation, it was indelibly linked to him in life…and death. The Law Library of Congress’ historical collection vividly illustrates three periods in which the law played a prominent part of the Lincoln era."