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I suppose you are aware that Johnson and Jones2Jump to section are at law about a portion of the made land attached to your addition to Chicago & and [sic] on the North side of the Harbor. I have been engaged, as an attorney on Jones' side; and if you have no objection to do so, I shall be obliged if you will answer the following questions---
1. Could you now certainly designate the point where the North side of the North pier, and the Lake shore met, before the new land began to form?
2. How long was it after the pier had reached that point, and continued Eastward, into the Lake, before the made land had formed, and filled in Eastward, on the North side of the pier, as much as sixty feet?
3. Do you remember whether any new land had formed at the time you sold and gave a bond to Hubbard?3Jump to section and if any had then formed, how much?
4. Do you remember whether any new land had formed at the time you deeded to Johnson & if any, how much?
5. At the time you laid out the addition, how far was it from where the South side of Water-Street struck the Lake Shore, down Southward along the Lake shore to where the East line of Lot 35 struck it?
I shall be greatly obliged, if you will answer these questions.
Your friend A. LINCOLN---
[1] ALS-P, ISLA. The famous but inaccurately named ``Sandbar Case'' for which Lincoln was preparing was Johnston v. Jones and Marsh, which had been in the courts since 1855 and which was not finally settled until April 4, 1860, when Lincoln and associated attorneys won a verdict in the U.S. Court for the defendants. The case involved land made by sand washed in by Lake Michigan along the north side of the North Pier, built by the U.S. Government in 1833 along a new channel entrance for the Chicago River into the lake. The most accurate brief discussion of the facts may be found in John M. Zane, ``Lincoln, the Constitutional Lawyers,'' Abraham Lincoln Association Papers (1933), pp. 41-42, n. 18.
[2] William S. Johnston (Lincoln misspelled the name) and William Jones. Sylvester Marsh was also one of the defendants.
[3] Gurdon S. Hubbard, prominent Chicago businessman.