That’s from the American Association for Justice’s home page, advertising to its trial lawyer members a Presidents’ Day discount on informational packages on how to sue productive members of society. Thank goodness that sale is over.

Seems like a good time to post an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s 1850 “Notes for a Law Lecture“:

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

Also, from David Freddoso, Washington Examiner:

A detailed Washington Examiner analysis of the top 110 plaintiffs’ firms in America shows that their employees and partners gave about $7.3 million to political campaigns during the last cycle, with almost every penny — 97 percent — going to Democrats. The remaining 3 percent was split almost evenly between independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist of Florida and Republican candidates for federal office.

The political action committee of the American Association for Justice, the trial lawyers’ top trade group, was equally friendly to Democrats, giving the party and its candidates 97 percent of AAJ’s $2.7 million in 2010 contributions.

As America waits to learn if President Obama’s latest health care proposal makes any move toward  liability reform, we offer these words from another President from Illinois.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

From “Notes for a Law Lecture,” Abraham Lincoln, circa 1850.

(Hat tip, Texans for Lawsuit Reform.)

NAM President John Engler offers his thoughts on the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth in this special commentary. For the audio version, please click here.

America marks the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth this week, honoring a man whose leadership preserved the union and helped end slavery.

Lincoln deserves honor as more than just a great President in a time of Civil War. As Congress debates legislation to help revive the economy, let’s also remember Abraham Lincoln’s economic leadership.

President Lincoln promoted and signed the Homestead Act, bringing tens of thousands of settlers to the Great Plains. In today’s terms, he encouraged private sector investment – with a minimum of government regulation.

Lincoln signed The Morrill Act, creating Land Grant institutions that offered agricultural and technical education – the exact skills America needed to grow.

And Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, which included land grants and financing for construction of the transcontinental railway, infrastructure that helped make America an economic giant.

Private investment, education and training, public support of infrastructure: These were all keys to building a great nation, and a great economy in the 1860s. They’re still just as important, just as key, today.

So let’s honor President Lincoln upon the bicentennial this week as a President whose economic leadership still provides guidance, 200 years after his birth.

President-elect Obama has been consciously evoking the history, wisdom and train travels of Abraham Lincoln, entirely fitting for any President but especially so for an elected official from Illinois. The symbolism carries even more weight this year as 2009 is the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History thus focuses even more than usual on  Lincoln’s place in American history this year, with two exhibitions opening last week.

We made a quick run through the Lincoln galleries Friday afternoon — not too crowded given the temperatures in the teens outside — and found the exhibitions well-done, definitely targeted at a mass audience but still informative enough (almost).

The museum, which reopened in November after a two-year renovation, is the best of the Smithsonians in presenting the history of American industry and manufacturing, and we’ll get back to that. For now, if you’re in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln exhibits are well worth seeing.

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life
Opens January 16, 2009
The life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln is brought to light with a re-examination of the unique and unparalleled collection of Lincoln artifacts and memorabilia held by the National Museum of American History. Each highlighted object will be augmented with personal stories told by Lincoln and the people who knew him best. The exhibition will showcase more than 60 historical treasures associated with Lincoln’s life, from an iron wedge he used to split wood in the early 1830s in New Salem, Illinois, to his iconic top hat he wore the night he was shot at Ford’s Theatre. Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life will tell a new and very intimate story of the nation’s 16th president.
Preview the exhibition with curator Harry Rubenstein.  >> Video

America’s New Birth of Freedom: Documents from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Opens January 16, 2009
This exhibition features ten rare and important documents on loan from the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois. These documents have become the cornerstone of current thinking on Lincoln and his legacy and will include a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Also on view are letters expressing Lincoln’s views on emancipation and the conclusion of the Civil War, including Lincoln’s letter to James C. Conkling in which he makes his forceful defense of the Emancipation Proclamation, and his letter to Francis Blair on his unwavering demands for peace.  Through April 2009.

Andrew Ferguson, a Lincoln…scholar? no, fan…wrote a provocative review of the newly renovated museum in a December Weekly Standard, expressing delight at the new architecture but unhappiness with the continued “social history stupor.” An interesting piece, “The Past Isn’t What it Used to Be.”

We note the evocation of President Lincoln in this week’s inaugural activities, but there’s one place where a President Obama — or any President — simply will not be able to emulate Abraham Lincoln’s accomplishments.

As we were reminded during a quick trip Friday to the recently reopened Smithsonian Museum of American History, Lincoln was the only President to have patented an invention. Not even Thomas Jefferson (though that might have been a matter of timing, since the U.S. Patent Office only got its start in 1802).

From the U.S. Patent Office, its Kids Pages:

As a young man, Lincoln took a boatload of merchandise down the Mississippi River from New Salem to New Orleans. At one point the boat slid onto a dam and was set free only after heroic efforts. In later years, while traveling on the Great Lakes, Lincoln’s ship ran afoul of a sandbar. These two similar experiences led him to conceive his invention. Lincoln received Patent #6,469 for “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals” on May 22, 1849.

The invention consists of a set of bellows attached to the hull of a ship just below the water line. On reaching a shallow place, the bellows are filled with air and the vessel, thus buoyed, is expected to float clear. The invention was never marketed, probably because the extra weight would have increased the probability of running onto sandbars more frequently. Lincoln whittled the model for his patent application with his own hands. It is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.

In 1858, Lincoln called the introduction of patent laws one of the three most important developments “in the world’s history,” along with the discovery of America and the perfection of printing. During the Civil War, he took a personal interest in new weapons, advocating the adoption of ironclad ships, the observation balloon, the breech-loading rifle, and the machine gun. Lincoln declared that “The patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius.”

Good luck, President Obama. In your spare time ….