Leonard Swett (1825-1889) was a civil and criminal lawyer who advised and assisted Abraham Lincoln throughout the president's political career.
Swett was born in 1825 near Turner, Maine and educated at North Yarmouth Academy and Colby College, although he did not earn a degree.[1] Swett read law in Portland, Maine and enlisted in the army to serve in the Mexican-American War. After the war, he settled in Bloomington, Illinois. In 1865, he settled in Chicago.
He was appointed by Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher to negotiate disputed claims to New Almaden Quicksilver Mine.[2]