Matson Trial

The case pitted Lincoln and former Illinois Attorney General Usher F. Linder against former US Representative Orlando B. Ficklin.

Ficklin's case proved successful, and Bryant's family was emancipated based on free soil doctrine.

[1] Lincoln had previously won a freedom suit (Bailey v. Cromwell (1841)) on behalf of an alleged slave, Nance, and her children, successfully getting the Illinois Supreme Court to declare, "the presumption [is] ... every person was free, without regard to race ... the sale of a free person is illegal.

Similar arguments to Lincoln's were used by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision.

[3] Michael Burlingame writes, "Lincoln's agreement to represent Matson has been called 'one of the greatest enigmas of his career.'"

He speculates that Lincoln may have believed that a lawyer "who refuses his professional assistance because in his judgment the case is unjust and indefensible, usurps the functions of both judge and jury."

Burlingame continues, "In 1844, the eminent jurist David Dudley Field observed that in the United States it was assumed that 'a lawyer is not at liberty to refuse any one his services.