Lincoln writes and signs Lincoln & Herndon to mechanics lien bill in Stigleman, Johnson & Co. v. Paddleford & Co., Sangamon Circuit Court case. Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

In the evening, Lincoln is at the statehouse, where he speaks to a group that seeks to encourage Illinois's black residents to relocate to Liberia, in Africa. A newspaper reports, "Mr. Lincoln was emphatically non-committal, and no man could have handled the subject with more grace and...tact. He stated that it was a subject entered into by men of all parties and shades of thought, and that if it could be accomplished without trouble...he would be in favor of the project...No one can object to this position." Outline for Speech to the Colonization Society, [4 January 1855], CW, 2:298-301; Sunday Morning Republican (St. Louis, MO), 7 January 1855, 2:5-6.