Upon moving to Springfield in 1837, Abraham Lincoln began the practice of law as the junior partner of John Todd Stuart. Stuart was an established Springfield attorney, but took on a partner to free himself from enough legal work to facilitate his run for Congress. The offices of Stuart and Lincoln occupied a single room on the second floor of the building pictured here. With Stuart often absent from the premises, Lincoln found himself obliged to master the details of a general law practice rapidly. He gained valuable experience representing a wide variety of clients in divergent types of cases. Lincoln also traveled the judicial circuit that included Bloomington and other central Illinois communities. This circuit allowed a single judge and a number of lawyers based in a larger community, like Springfield, to provide individuals in outlying areas with access to legal council and judicial proceedings on a regular schedule. In 1839 Stuart left to begin his term in the United States Congress, leaving Lincoln to run the firm himself.