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Leonard Swett (August 11, 1825 – June 8, 1889) was a civil and criminal lawyer who advised and assisted
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
throughout the president's political career.


Early life

Swett was born in 1825 near Turner, Maine and educated at
North Yarmouth Academy North Yarmouth Academy (also known as "NYA") is an independent, co-ed, college preparatory day school serving students from early childhood education to postgraduate. NYA was founded in 1814, in what was then North Yarmouth, Maine, prior to the 184 ...
and
Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...
, although he did not earn a degree.Leonard Swett
/ref> Swett read law in
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
and enlisted in the army to serve in the Mexican-American War. After the war, he settled in Bloomington, Illinois. In 1865, he settled in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
.


Political activity

Swett and
Ward Hill Lamon Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 – May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and self-appointed bodyguard of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously absent the night Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, having bee ...
, along with another Lincoln associate, David Davis, helped engineer Lincoln's nomination at the 1860 Republican National Convention, according to the 1949 doctoral thesis ''Ward Hill Lamon: Lincoln's Particular Friend'', written by Lavern Marshall Hamand at the Graduate College of the University of Illinois. In 1863 Swett was dispatched to California with an order to seize the New Almaden Mine signed by President Lincoln. In addition to his federal duties he anticipated payment of $10,000 from a group of American investors, many either in or associated with the Lincoln administration, organized as the Quicksilver Mining Company who were engaged in an attempt to wrest control of the mine from Barron, Forbes Company, a British-Mexican firm that had been operating the mine for the previous 15 years. Their legal claim was pursued in the federal courts in several actions. At the time Lincoln signed the order seizing the mine, unbeknownst to him, the matter was still in litigation before the United States Supreme Court. It was represented to Lincoln that the current operators of the mine were squatters upon lands of the United States. The sweeping order, which could arguably be viewed as assertion of the right to seize any mining property on the lands of the United States, was received with dismay and outrage in California and Nevada. California, as of 1863, was not firmly in the Union camp. Its enforcement was blocked by General George Wright, commander of the
Department of the Pacific The Department of the Pacific or Pacific Department was a major command (Department) of the United States Army from 1853 to 1858. It replaced the Pacific Division, and was itself replaced by the Department of California and the Department of Or ...
, a decision reinforced by a subsequent order of
Henry Halleck Henry Wager Halleck (January 16, 1815 – January 9, 1872) was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". He was an important par ...
General in Chief of the Union Armies, who believed the order to have been "surreptitiously obtained." Lincoln, mindful of confederate sentiment in California, apologized and attempted to explain the limited nature of the warrant. Swett subsequently played a diminished political role. Swett is portrayed by the actor Ryan Honey in the 2012 movie ''
Saving Lincoln ''Saving Lincoln'' is a 2013 American historical drama film about Ward Hill Lamon, a friend of President Abraham Lincoln, and follows their overlapping legal careers in Illinois prior to the American Civil War. Lamon accompanied Lincoln to Washi ...
'', which tells President Lincoln's story through the eyes of
Ward Hill Lamon Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 – May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and self-appointed bodyguard of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously absent the night Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, having bee ...
, a former law partner of Lincoln who also served as his primary bodyguard during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. In the 2017 documentary film ''The Gettysburg Address'', Swett is portrayed by actor Michael C. Hall.


References


Further reading

*Eckley, Robert S. (2012). ''Lincoln's Forgotten Friend, Leonard Swett''. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press
Reviewed


External links



(Bloomington, Illinois newspaper) {{DEFAULTSORT:Swett, Leonard 1825 births 1889 deaths People from Turner, Maine People from Bloomington, Illinois Colby College alumni American military personnel of the Mexican–American War North Yarmouth Academy alumni 19th-century American lawyers