Page 192
To William D. Briggs1Jump to section
Dear Sir. March 19. 1853.
I suppose it will be necessary to take a deposition in the attachment case you mention.2Jump to section It will have to be done under the act of March 1st. 1845---found in the Session acts of 1845, at page 27. The way will be to make out a notice with interrogatories, precisely as you do to take a deposition of a non-resident witness in an ordinary case, except that 4 weeks instead of 10 days time must be given; and as you can not serve the notice, post one copy on the court house door, & file the other in the clerks office 4 weeks before suing out the commission. If posted at the court-house I [sic] door I think it need not be published in a news-paper---one or the other will do.
As to the declaration, I suppose that a common count is all that is necessary, & accordingly I send a draft of that sort. Yours truly
A. LINCOLN---
P.S. When you send on for evidence, better also get an authenticated copy of the Charter. Also look over the declaration I send, fill in blanks, correct mistakes, if any, in names, amounts &c.
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] ALS, owned by A. V. D. Rousseau, Los Angeles, California. Briggs was a Tazewell County attorney.
[2] The only case on which Briggs at this time seems to have been associated with Lincoln was Harris Lime Rock Company v. Harris, tried at Pekin on May 3, Lincoln and Briggs for plaintiff. According to the record, the court fixed the plaintiff's damages at $5,000, on May 12.