Usher Ferguson Linder (March 20, 1809 – June 5, 1876) served as

Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...

from 1837 until 1839. He was also a private-sector attorney in practice during the early statehood years of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. In several of his cases, he practiced in affiliation with the

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

firm of Lincoln and Herndon and with its circuit partner,

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 ...

Biography

Usher F. Linder was a member of the generation of pioneer Kentuckians who moved to the frontier state of Illinois because of its opportunities in the making of a career. Moving to the new Prairie State in 1835, Linder settled in

Coles County Coles County is a county in Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,863. Its county seat is Charleston, which is also the home of Eastern Illinois University. Coles County is part of the Charleston- Mattoon, IL Micropolitan S ...

and was admitted to the bar. He became active in politics, being elected to the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

in 1836, 1846, and 1850. He was appointed as state Attorney General, serving 1837-1839. He was called to assist the City of Alton Attorney, Francis Butter Murdoch, in prosecuting what was known as the "Alton Riot Trial", following the attack on a warehouse and deaths of a man named Bishop and

Elijah Parish Lovejoy Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. Following his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery ...

on November 7, 1837. He also practiced law in Illinois from 1835 until 1860.

Political career

As a State representative from southeastern Illinois elected in 1836, Linder met a young lawmaker from

Sangamon County Sangamon County is located in the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 197,465. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital. Sangamon County is included in the Spr ...

in central Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. In defense of his constituents, Linder attempted to oppose Lincoln's successful efforts to move the young state's capital from

Vandalia, Illinois Vandalia is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2020 Census, the population was 7,458. Vandalia is northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1 ...

. The pro-slavery Linder opposed many of Lincoln's political views, as he was a member of the

Illinois Democratic Party The Democratic Party of Illinois is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the oldest extant state party in Illinois and one of just two recognized parties in the state, along with the Republican Party. It is ...

prior to 1839 and again after 1854. However, Lincoln and Linder also practiced law in affiliation with each other. Lincoln was the circuit partner of a Springfield-based practice that handled a wide variety of cases in the Eighth Circuit, a collection of counties in central and southeastern Illinois that included both Sangamon County and Coles County. As Linder had by this time become a leading lawyer in Coles County, this meant that both lawyers needed to affiliate with a fellow professional in each other's home county.

Relationship with Lincoln

Although Lincoln and Linder were never legal partners, their practices were affiliated. They handed off cases to each other, especially as Lincoln wound down his active casework and became a U.S. Presidential candidate in 1860. As an active Democrat after 1854, Linder was an ally of Lincoln's chief Illinois political rival, U.S. Senator

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

. Linder helped to organize Coles County for Douglas, which took on significance when the county seat,

Charleston, Illinois Charleston is a city in, and the county seat of, Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,286, as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Eastern Illinois University and has close ties with its neighbor, Mattoon. Both are p ...

, became the site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the senatorial campaign of 1858. Douglas grew to rely upon lawyer Linder as a key political troubleshooter. In one episode, the beset senator sent a frantic telegram to Linder, "FOR GODS SAKE LINDER COME AND HELP ME FIGHT THEM." For the rest of his life, the attorney bore the nickname of "For God's Sake" Linder. After Lincoln's election and the outbreak of 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 ...

, Linder's son, Daniel Linder, became a soldier for the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

and was captured. After his father pleaded with Lincoln, the commander-in-chief asked that the prisoner of war be sent to see him at the White House. Young Daniel appeared under guard and was granted a note that instructed him to take an oath of allegiance to the United States and released him to the custody of his father. Daniel Linder was freed on December 26, 1863. According to the "Terre Haute Journal", Linder's teenage son, shot a schoolmate, the son of Dr. Ball, on the evening of May 13, 1856, over some difficulties at school. When Lincoln heard of this, he offered to represent him gratis, "an offer that brought tears to the eyes of the distraught father.Abraham Lincoln: A Life, By Michael Burlingame, JHU Press, Nov 6, 2012" Known for his violence, In 1859, while in open court, Linder beat up a fellow attorney. Linder retired from the practice of law in the 1860s. In his later years he wrote a slim volume of memoirs, ''Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois''. He died in Chicago in 1876.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linder, Usher F. 1809 births 1876 deaths Illinois Democrats Illinois lawyers Illinois Whigs 19th-century American politicians Illinois Attorneys General Members of the Illinois House of Representatives People from Elizabethtown, Kentucky People from Coles County, Illinois 19th-century American lawyers