Illinois. Circuit Court (Tazewell County)

Case Name: Bailey v. Cromwell & McNaghton.

In 1836, David M. Bailey gave Nathan Cromwell a promissory note for a black slave woman. Cromwell agreed to provide proof that the woman was indeed a slave. When Cromwell died, the administrators of his estate, William Cromwell and Alexander McNaghton, sued for payment of the note. Bailey, represented by Abraham Lincoln, argued that he need not pay the note because Cromwell had never furnished proof of the woman's slave status. He lost the case in September 1839, but appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which reversed the lower court's decision in July 1841 [4 Ill. 71].