Lincoln's Ladder to the Presidency

The Eighth Judicial Circuit

Guy C. Fraker

Univeristy Press Books for Public and Secondary Schools 2013; Superior Achievement by the Illinois State Historical Society, 2013

Narrated by Don Sobczak

Available from Audible

Book published by Southern Illinois University Press

Guy C. Fraker , an attorney in Bloomington, Illinois, has written extensively and lectures frequently on the Eighth Circuit. He was the consultant on the award-winning PBS documentary, “Lincoln, Prelude to the Presidency,” and co-curated “Prologue to the Presidency: Abraham Lincoln on the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit,” a traveling exhibit also on permanent display at the David Davis Mansion, a state historic site in Bloomington. He served as an advisor to the National Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he is a past president of the McLean County Bar Association.

REVIEWS:

“Guy Fraker’s superb book about Abraham Lincoln and the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit provides an effective lesson on the importance of political networking. For more than twenty years, Mr. Lincoln rode the Circuit with other lawyers and judges. These were smart, influential and ambitious men. Lincoln made them his friends and, in time, they would help Mr. Lincoln climb the ladder to the presidency. Fraker’s book is great history but it is also an excellent primer for aspiring politicians.”

—Jim Edgar, Illinois governor, 1991-1999

“It is obvious that attorney Guy Fraker has spent a lifetime examining Abraham Lincoln’s extensive legal practice on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The results are an edifying, microscopic view of Lincoln the man, politician, and lawyer. If you want to understand why and how President Lincoln became the ‘lawyer in the White House,’ read this book. If you want to know how Lincoln was able to maintain the support of the people, read this book. And if you wish to see and feel Lincoln’s evolution to greatness, enjoy this book. No one has described the tedium of the Lincoln law practice as well as the author; his friends, enemies and associates, as well as the people they represented are all here.”

—Frank J. Williams, retired chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and founding chair of The Lincoln Forum

“Guy Fraker’s Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency is a refreshing and revisioning portrait of Lincoln the Illinois lawyer. As a central Illinois lawyer himself, Fraker knows the Eighth Judicial Circuit better than anyone. As a Lincoln scholar, he has an eye for the revealing legal story and an ear for the interplay of Lincoln’s legal and political ideas and language.”

—Ronald C. White Jr., author of A. Lincoln: A Biography

“Guy Fraker traverses the ‘Lincoln Country’ of central Illinois in this richly detailed account of Abraham Lincoln’s life on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Here he introduces the lawyers with whom Lincoln traveled or met on the circuit for over twenty years during his ever-growing practice of law, a pursuit that simultaneously gave him a network of friends who supported his political career. Drawing together both contemporary and reminiscent sources, and bringing a sense of place to each locale on the circuit, Fraker provides a comprehensive view of Lincoln’s life in law and politics on the Illinois prairie. ”

—John Hoffmann, Illinois History and Lincoln Collections, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign