D.W. Griffith had previously filmed Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater in The Birth of a Nation.
Jason Robards, the son of the actor appearing here as Lincoln's law partner, has played Abe Lincoln three times on the small screen: in a 1964 Hallmark Hall of Fame special, a 1991 made-for-TV movie and a 1992 documentary. He has also played three other US presidents.
One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.
Reviews and other references credit Fred Warren for the role of General Grant and E. Alyn Warren for Stephen A. Douglas, but the print shown on Turner Classic Movies credits E. Alyn Warren for both roles. That print, however, is not original. It is an Art Cinema Associates Inc. re-release, with the title page changed accordingly. Fact of the matter is, E. Alyn Warren, who often worked under the name of Fred Warren, and plays both roles, Stephen A. Douglas, credited as E. Alyn Warren, and Ulysses S. Grant, credited as Fred Warren.
This was D.W. Griffith's first sound film.