AUBURN - Monday marked the 199th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, a president whose place in history is undeniable.

But Lincoln is also a character whose life prior to being president is largely overlooked.

The connection between Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, is one that the Seward House in Auburn celebrates and remembers, especially this time of year. On Wednesday, the Seward House welcomed local author Julie M. Fenster to Willard Chapel to talk about her most recent work, “The Case of Abraham Lincoln.”

“It is only fitting that we have her here with us as a guest speaker,” said Jennifer Haines, curator of education and outreach. “We are here to celebrate the life of Lincoln and to also look at an aspect of his life that is often overlooked.”

In her book, Fenster, of DeWitt, looks at 1856, a year which was an incredible turning point for Lincoln, according to Fenster.

“His political career was waning,” Fenster said. “He had a very successful law practice. He had lost the senatorship that he was running for and politically it didn't look like he was going to be doing much more.”

Fenster said that colleagues, as well as Lincoln himself, rated him only as an average speaker and politician, certainly not the image that has come to be known in history.

“Usually people want to skip over this part of his life,” Fenster said. “They want to get to the last five years of his life. But this period, and I believe if he had written his memoirs, he would have looked back on 1856 in particular as the turning point of his life.”

Setting the scene, Fenster went on to discuss William Bissell who won a seat in Congress and ultimately the governorship of Illinois, making him the leading political figure in the state.

But it was also a time of political unrest across America. Slavery was already a crucial issue politicians were facing and the Whig Party was on the verge of disintegrating into the Know Nothing Party and the Republican Party.

This was the first of many choices that Fenster contends were crucial to the future of Lincoln's political career.

“The Republicans didn't necessarily want to end slavery,” Fenster said. “But they wanted to make sure it didn't spread west. This was an important issue that if Lincoln had come down on the wrong side of may have changed things greatly.”

By becoming a member of the burgeoning Republicans, he played a major role in shaping the direction the party took during this time, giving the party what Fenster called soul.

Also during this time was the changing face of the practice of law. In Illinois during Lincoln's time, it was not uncommon for a case to be given to a lawyer in the morning and tried in the afternoon.

Increasingly what was referred to as “eastern law” was taking over, where lawyers would spend months researching a case before trial. In this environment, the case of the century, as Fenster called it, was taking shape in Illinois. The case of Jane and Theodore Anderson who were accused of the murder of Anderson's husband, George Anderson. Jane was one of the first women to be tried for murder in the country.

Through the efforts of the people of Springfield, Lincoln was asked to join the defense and gladly took on the case, helping get Jane and Theodore acquitted.

This in turn, helped solidify Lincoln's reputation as a lawyer. Along with his work with the Republican Party, Lincoln went on to be known nationally, which helped propel him suddenly into a position to run for president.

“His legal career was more than a stepping stone,” Fenster said. “If it weren't for this time in his life, his political career may have dwindled away. This is why I believe it is an important part of his life and something that we need to study and understand to understand the man that he was.”