■i HERNDON'S LINCOLN copyright by The Herndon's Lincoln Publishing Co. 1921 HERNDON'S LINCOLN THE TRUE STORY OF A GREAT LIFE Etiam in minimis major THE HISTORY AND PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY WILLIAM H. HERNDON For Twenty Years His Friend and Law Partner and JESSE WILLIAM WEIK, A. M, VOL. II THE HERNDON'S LINCOLN PUBLISHING COMPANY Publishers SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ■Hs-7 These volumes are submitted as faithful repro- ductions of the original "Herndon's Lincoln". We have endeavored to make the body of the work con- form, line for line and word for word, to the original. The Publishers. 3^ HUG 12'?/ CHAPTER IX. The year 1840 finds Mr. Lincoln entering his thirty-second year and still unmarried. "I have come to the conclusion," he suggests in a facetious letter, two years before, "never again to think of marrying." But meanwhile he had seen more of the world. The State Capital had been removed to Springfield, and he soon observed the power and influence one can exert with high family and social surroundings to draw upon. The sober truth is that Lincoln was inordinately ambitious. He had already succeeded in obtaining no inconsiderable political recognition, and numbered among his party friends men of wealth and reputation; but he himself was poor, besides lacking the graces and ease of bearing obtained through mingling in polite society — in fact, to use the expressive language of Mary Owens, he was "deficient in those little links which make up the chain of woman's happiness." Conscious, therefore, of his humble rank in the social scale, how natural that he should seek by mar- riage in an influential family to establish strong con- nections and at the same time foster his political fortunes ! This may seem an audacious thing to in- sinuate, but on no other basis can we reconcile the strange course of his courtship and the tempestuous 205 206 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. chapters in his married life. It is a curious history, and the facts, long chained down, are gradually com- ing to the surface. When all is at last known, the world I believe will divide its censure between Lin- coln and his wife. Mary Todd, who afterwards became the wife of Mr. Lincoln, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 1818. "My mother," related Mrs. Lincoln to me in 1865, "died when I was still young. I was educated by Madame Mantelli, a lady who lived opposite Mr. Clay's, and who was an accom- plished French scholar. Our conversation at school was carried on entirely in French — in fact we were allowed to speak nothing else. I finished my edu- cation at Mrs. Ward's Academy, an institution to which many people from the North sent their daughters. In 1837 I visited Springfield, Illinois, remaining three months. I returned to Kentucky, remaining till 1839, when I again set out for Illi- nois, which State finally became my home." The paternal grandfather of Mary Todd, General Levi Todd, was born in 1756, was educated in Vir- ginia, and studied law in the office of General Lewis of the State. He emigrated to Kentucky, was a lieutenant in the campaigns conducted by General George Rogers Clark against the Indians, and com- manded a battalion in the battle of Blue Licks, August 18, 1782, where his brother, John Todd, was killed. He succeeded Daniel Boone in command of the militia, ranking as major-general, and was one of the first settlers in Lexington, Ky. Febru- ary 25, 1779, he married Miss Jane Briggs. The THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 207 seventh child of this union, born February 25, 1791, was Robert S. Todd, the father of Mrs. Lincoln. On her maternal side Mrs. Lincoln was highly con- nected. Her great-grandfather, General Andrew Porter, was in the war of the Revolution. He suc- ceeded Peter Muhlenberg as major-general of the Pennsylvania militia. Her great uncles, George B. Porter, who was governor of Michigan, James Mad- ison Porter, secretary of the navy under President Tyler, and David R. Porter, governor of Pennsyl- vania, were men of ability and distinction. Her mother, Anne Eliza Parker, was a cousin of her father, Robert S. Todd. The latter had served in both houses of the Kentucky Legislature, and for over twenty years was president of the Bank of Kentucky at Lexington. He died July 16, 1849. To a young lady in whose veins coursed the blood that had come down from this long and dis- tinguished ancestral line, who could even go back in the genealogical chart to the sixth century, Lin- coln, the child of Nancy Hanks, whose descent was dimmed by the shadow of tradition, was finally united in marriage. When Mary Todd came to her sister's house in Springfield in 1839, she was in her twenty-first year. She was a young woman of strong, passionate nature and quick temper, and had "left her home in Kentucky to avoid living under the same roof with a stepmother."* She came to live with her oldest sister, Elizabeth, who was the wife of Lin- * Mrs. Edwards, statement, Aug-. 3, 1887. 208 THE L1FE 0F LINCOLN, coin's colleague in the Legislature, Ninian W. Edwards. She had two other sisters, Frances, mar- ried to Dr. William Wallace, and Anne, who after- wards became the wife of C. M. Smith, a prominent and wealthy merchant. They all resided in Spring- field. She was of the average height, weighing when I first saw her about a hundred and thirty pounds. She was rather compactly built, had a well rounded face, rich dark-brown hair, and bluish-gray eyes. In her bearing she was proud, but handsome and vivacious. Her education had been in no wise defective; she was a good conversationalist, using with equal fluency the French and English lan- guages. When she used a pen, its point was sure to be sharp, and she wrote with wit and ability. She not only had a quick intellect but an intuitive judg- ment of men and their motives. Ordinarily she was affable and even charming in her manners ; but when offended or antagonized, her agreeable quali- ties instantly disappeared beneath a wave of sting- ing satire or sarcastic bitterness, and her entire better nature was submerged. In her figure and physical proportions, in education, bearing, tempera- ment, history — in everything she was the exact reverse of Lincoln. On her return to Springfield she immediately entered society, and soon became one of the belles, leading the young men of the town a merry dance. She was a very shrewd observer, and discreetly and without apparent effort kept back all the unattrac- tive elements in her unfortunate organization. Her trenchant wit, affability, and candor pleased the THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 209 young men not less than her culture and varied accomplishments impressed the older ones with whom she came in contact. The first time I met her was at a dance at the residence of Col. Robert Allen, a gentleman mentioned in the preceding chapter. I engaged her for a waltz, and as we glided through it I fancied I never before had danced with a young lady who moved with such grace and ease. A few moments later, as we were promenading through the hall, I thought to com- pliment her graceful dancing by telling her that while I was conscious of my own awkward move- ments, she seemed to glide through the waltz with the ease of a serpent. The strange comparison was as unfortunate as it was hideous. I saw it in an instant, but too late to recall it. She halted for a moment, drew back, and her eyes flashed as she retorted : "Mr. Herndon, comparison to a serpent is rather severe irony, especially to a new- comer." Through the influence of Joshua F. Speed, who was a warm friend of the Edwardses, Lincoln was led to call on Miss Todd. He was charmed with her wit and beauty, no less than by her excellent social qualities and profound knowledge of the strong and weak points in individual character. One visit suc- ceeded another. It was the old story. Lincoln had again fallen in love. "I have often happened in the room where they were sitting," relates Mrs. Edwards, describing this courtship, "and Mary invariably led the conversation. Mr. Lincoln would sit at her side and listen. He scarcely said a word, 210 TEE LIFE OF LINCOLN. but gazed on her as if irresistibly drawn towards her by some superior and unseen power. He could not maintain himself in a continued conversation with a lady reared as Mary was. He was not edu- cated and equipped mentally to make himself either interesting or attractive to the ladies. He was a good, honest, and sincere young man whose rugged, manly qualities I admired; but to me he somehow seemed ill-constituted by nature and education to please such a woman as my sister. Mary was quick, gay. and in the social world somewhat brilliant. She loved show and power, and was the most ambi- tious woman I ever knew. She used to contend when a girl, to her friends in Kentucky, that she was destined to marry a President. I have heard her say that myself, and after mingling in society in Springfield she repeated the seemingly absurd and idle boast. Although Mr. Lincoln seemed to be attached to Mary, and fascinated by her wit and sagacity, yet I soon began to doubt whether they could always be so congenial. In a short time I told Mary my impression that they were not suited, or, as some persons who believe matches are made in heaven would say, not intended for each other." But Mrs. Edwards' advise was seed sown on rocky soil. The courtship ran on smoothly to the point of engagement, when a new and disturb- ing element loomed up ahead in their paths. It was no less than the dashing and handsome Stephen A. Douglas, who now appeared on the scene in the guise of a rival. As a society man Douglas was infinitely more accomplished, more attractive THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 211 and influential than Lincoln, and that he should supplant the latter in the affections of the proud and aristocratic Miss Todd is not to be marveled at. He was unremitting in his attentions to the lady, promenaded the streets arm-in-arm with her — frequently passing Lincoln — and in every way made plain his intention to become the latter's rival. There are those who believe this warm reciprocation of young Douglas' affection was a mere flirtation on Mary Todd's part, intended to spur Lincoln up, to make him more de- monstrative, and manifest his love more positively and with greater fervor. But a lady relative who lived with Lincoln and his wife for two years after their marriage is authority for the statement coming from Mrs. Lincoln herself that "she loved Douglas, and but for her promise to marry Lincoln would have accepted him." The unfortunate attitude she felt bound to maintain between these two young men ended in a spell of sickness. Douglas, still hopeful, was warm in the race, but the lady's physician, — her brother-in-law, — Dr. William Wallace, to whom she confided the real cause of her illness, saw Douglas and induced him to end his pursuit,* which he did with great reluctance. If Miss Todd intended by her flirtation with Douglas to test Lincoln's devotion, she committed a grievous error. If she believed, because he was ordinarily so undemonstrative, that he was without Mrs. Harriett Chapman, statement, Nov. 8, 1887. 212 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. - will-power and incapable of being aroused, she certainly did not comprehend the man. Lincoln began now to feel the sting. Miss Todd's spur had certainly operated and with awakening effect. One evening Lincoln came into our store and called for his warm friend Speed. Together they walked back to the fireplace, where Lincoln, drawing from his pocket a letter, asked Speed to read it. "The letter," relates Speed, "was addressed to Mary Todd, and in it he made a plain statement of his feelings, telling her that he had thought the matter over calmly and with great deliberation, and now felt that he did not love her sufficiently to warrant her in marrying him. This letter he de- sired me to deliver. Upon my declining to do so he threatened to intrust it to some other person's hand. I reminded him that the moment he placed the letter in Miss Todd's hand, she would have the advantage over him. 'Words are forgotten,' I said, 'misunderstood, unnoticed in a private conver- sation, but once put your words in writing and they stand a living and eternal monument against you.' Thereupon I threw the unfortunate letter in the fire. 'Now,' I continued, 'if you have the courage of manhood, go see Mary yourself; tell her, if you do not love her, the facts, and that you will not marry her. Be careful not to say too much, and then leave at your earliest opportunity.' Thus admonished, he buttoned his coat, and with a rather determined look started out to perform the serious duty for which I had just given him explicit direc- tions." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 213 That night Speed did not go upstairs to bed with us, but under pretense of wanting to read, remained in the store below. He was waiting for Lincoln's return. Ten o'clock passed, and still the interview with Miss Todd had not ended. At length, shortly after eleven, he came stalking in. Speed was satisfied, from the length of Lincoln's stay, that his directions had not been followed. "Well, old fellow, did you do as I told you and as you promised?" were Speed's first words. "Yes, I did," responded Lincoln, thoughtfully, "and when I told Mary I did not love her, she burst into tears and almost springing from her chair and wringing her hands as if in agony, said something about the deceiver being himself de- ceived." Then he stopped. "What else did you say?" inquired Speed, drawing the facts from him. "To tell you the truth, Speed, it was too much for me. I found the tears trickling down my own cheeks. I caught her in my arms and kissed her." "And that's how you broke the engagement," sneered Speed. "You not only acted the fool, but your conduct was tantamount to a renewal of the engagement, and in decency you cannot back down now." "Well," drawled Lincoln, "if I am in again, so be it. It's done, and I shall abide by it."* Convinced now that Miss Todd regarded the engagement ratified, — instead of broken, as her tall * Statement, Joshua F. Speed, Sep. 17., 1866, MS. 214 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. suitor had at first intended. — Lincoln continued his visits, and things moved on smoothly as before. Douglas had dropped out of the race, and every- thing pointed to an early marriage. It was prob- ably at this time that Mr. and Mrs. Edwards began to doubt the wisdom of the marriage, and now and then to intimate the same to the lady ; but they went no farther in their opposition and placed no obstacle in their paths. The time fixed for the marriage was the first day in January, 1841. Careful preparations for the happy occasion were made at the Edwards mansion. The house underwent the customary renovation; the furniture was properly arranged, the rooms neatly decorated, the supper prepared, and the guests invited. The latter assembled on the evening in question, and awaited in expectant pleasure the interesting ceremony of marriage. The bride, be- decked in veil and silken gown, and nervously toy- ing with the flowers in her hair, sat in the adjoin- ing room. Nothing was lacking but the groom. For some strange reason he had been delayed. An hour passed, and the guests as well as the bride were becoming restless. But they were all doomed to disappointment. Another hour passed; messengers were sent out over town, and each returning with the same report, it became apparent that Lincoln, the principal in this little drama, had purposely failed to appear ! The bride, in grief, disappeared to her room ; the wedding supper was left untouched ; the guests quietly and wonderingly withdrew ; the lights in the Edwards mansion were blown out, and dark- THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 215 ness settled over all for the night. What the feel- ings of a lady as sensitive, passionate, and proud as Miss Todd were we can only imagine — no one can ever describe them. By daybreak, after persistent search, Lincoln's friends found him. Restless, gloomy, miserable, desperate, he seemed an object of pity. His friends, Speed among the number, fearing a tragic termination, watched him closely in their rooms day and night. "Knives and razors, and every instrument that could be used for self- destruction were removed from his reach.''* Mrs. Edwards did not hesitate to regard him as insane, and of course her sister Alary shared in that view. But the case was hardly so desperate. His condition began to improve after a few weeks, and a letter written to his partner Stuart, on the 23d of January, 1841, three weeks after the scene at Edwards' house, reveals more perfectly how he felt. He says : "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell ; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better, as it appears to me. . . I fear 1 shall be unable to attend to any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could be myself I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more." During all this time the Legislature to which Lin- coln belonged was in special session, but for a time * J. F. Speed, MS. letter, January 6, 1866. 216 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. he was unable to attend.* Towards the close of the session, however, he resumed his seat. He took little if any part in the proceedings, made no speeches, and contented himself with answers to the monotonous roll-call, and votes on a few of the principal measures. After the adjournment of the Legislature, his warm friend Speed, who had dis- posed of his interests in Springfield, induced Lin- coln to accompany him to Kentucky. Speed's parents lived in a magnificent place a few miles from Louisville. Their farm was well stocked, and they, in the current phrase, "lived well." Thither he was taken, and there amid the quiet surroundings he found the "change of scene" which he told Stuart might help him. He was living under the cloud of melancholia, and sent to the Sangamon Journal a few lines under the gloomy title of "Sui- cide." They were published in the paper, and a few years since I hunted over the files, and coming across the number containing them, was astonished to find that some one had cut them out. I have always supposed it was done by Lincoln or by some one at his instigation. Speed's mother was much impressed with the tall and swarthy stranger her son had brought with him. She was a God-fearing mother, and be- sides aiding to lighten his spirits, gave him a Bible, * His illness and consequent incapacity for duty in the Legis- lature, continued for almost three weeks. On the 19th of Janu- ary, 1841, John J. Hardin announced his illness in the House. Four days afterward he wrote the letter to Stuart from which I have quoted a few lines. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 217 advising him to read it and by adopting its precepts obtain a release from his troubles which no other agency, in her judgment, could bring him. "He was much depressed. At first he almost contemplated suicide. In the deepest of his depression he said one day he had done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived ; and that to connect his name with the events transpiring in his day and gen- eration, and so impress himself upon them as to link his name with something that would redound to the interest of his fellow-men, was what he desired to live for."* The congenial associations at the Speed farm,f the freedom from unpleasant reminders, the company of his staunch friend, and above all the motherly care and delicate attentions of Mrs. Speed exerted a marked influence over Lincoln. He improved gradually, day by day gaining strength and confidence in himself, until at last the great cloud lifted and passed away. In the fall he and Speed returned to Springfield. At this point, as afTording us the most reliable account of Mr. Lin- coln's condition and views, it is proper to insert a por- tion of his correspondence with Mr. Speed. For some time Mr. Speed was reluctant to give these * Letter, J. F. Speed, February 9, 1866, MS. f At the time of Lincoln's visit at the Speed mansion, James Speed, a brother of Joshua, and afterward Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, was practicing law in Louisville. Lincoln came into his office daily. "He read my books," related Mr, Speed in after years ; "talked with me about his life, his read- ing, his studies, his aspirations." Mr. Speed discredits the thought that Lincoln was insane at the time, although he under- stood he was saddened and melancholy over an unfortunate love affair. 218 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. letters to the world. After some argument, however, he at last shared my view that they were properly a matter of history, and sent them to me, accom- panied by a letter, in which he says : "I enclose you copies of all the letters of any interest from Mr. Lincoln to me. Some explanation may be needed that you may rightly understand their import. In the winter of 1840 and 1841, he was unhappy about his engagement to his wife — not being entirely satisfied that his heart was going with his hand. How much he suffered then on that account none knew so well as myself; he disclosed his whole heart to me.* "In the summer of 1841 I became engaged to my wife. He was here on a visit when I courted her ; and, strange to say, something of the same feeling which I regarded as so foolish in him took posses- sion of me and kept me very unhappy from the time of my engagement until I was married. This will explain the deep interest he manifested in his letters on my account. "One thing is plainly descernible ; if I had not been married and happy — far more happy than I ever expected to be — he would not have married." The first of these letters is one which he gave * Lincoln wrote a letter — a long one which he read to me — to Dr. Drake of Cincinnati, descriptive of his case. Its date would be in December, 1840, or early in January, 1841. I think that he must have informed Dr. Drake of his early love for Miss Rut- ledge, as there was a part of the letter which he would not read. . . I remember Dr. Drake's reply, which was, that he would not undertake to prescribe for him without a personal in- terview." — Joshua F. Speed, MS letter, November 30, 1866. THE LIFE OF LIXCOLX. 219 Speed when the latter started on his journey from Illinois to Kentucky. It bears no date, but was handed him January 1, 1812, as Speed has testified, in another letter to me, that he left Springfield on that day. It is full of consolation and advice how best to conduct himself when the periods of gloom which he feels sure will follow come upon his friend. "I know," he says, "what the painful point with you is at all times when you are un- happy ; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. What nonsense ! How came you to court her? . . . Did you court her for her wealth ? Why, you say she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself un- able to reason yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had reason to do with it at that early stage? There was nothing at that time for reason to work upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, you did not nor could then know, except perhaps you might infer the last from the company you found her in. . . . Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all of your reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at the residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexing- ton and back for no other purpose but to get to see her again on our return on that evening to take a trip for that express object?" The next paragraph is significant as affording us 220 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. an idea of how the writer perhaps viewed Miss Todd's flirtation with Douglas: "What earthly consideration," he asks, "would you take to find her scouting and despising you and giving herself up to another? But of this you need have no apprehen- sion, and therefore you cannot bring it home to your feelings." February 3, he writes again, acknowledging re- ceipt of a letter dated January 25. The object of Speed's affection had been ill, and her condition had greatly intensified his gloomy spirits. Lincoln prof- fers his sympathy. "I hope and believe," he con- tinues, "that your present anxiety about her health and her life must and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent your pres- ent affliction expressly for that object), surely noth- ing can come in their stead to fill their immeasur- able measure of misery . . . "It really appears to me that you yourself ought to rejoice and not sorrow at this indubitable evi- dence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you might not wish her death, you would most certainly be re- signed to it. Perhaps this point is no longer a ques- tion with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suf- fered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I have been quite THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 221 clear of hypo since you left, even better than I was along in the fall." The next letter, February 13, was written on the eve of Speed's marriage. After assurances of his desire to befriend him in everything, he suggests : "But you will always hereafter be on ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, if advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will never again need any comfort from abroad ... I incline to think it probable that your nerves will occasionally fail you for awhile ; but once you get them firmly graded now, that trouble is over forever. If you went through the ceremony calmly or even with suffi- cient composure not to excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in two or three months, to say the most, w r ill be the happiest of men." Meanwhile Lincoln had been duly informed of Speed's marriage, and on the 25th he responds : "Yours of the 16th, announcing that Miss Fanny and you are 'no more twain, but one flesh,' reached me this morning. I have no way of telling how much happiness I wish you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel somew r hat jealous of both of you now. You will be so exclusively concerned for one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. . . I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends we have no pleasure, and if we have them we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss." 222 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. In another letter, written the same day, he says, "I have no doubt it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far ex- ceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to realize them than that same black- eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her through my imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of being unhappy with her. My old father used to have a saying, that, 'If you make a bad bargain hug it all the tighter,' and it occurs to me that if the bargain just closed can possibly be called a bad one it is certainly the most pleasant one for apply- ing that maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture." Speed having now safely married, Lincoln's mind hegan to turn on things nearer home. His rela- tions with Mary Todd were still strained, but re- minders of his period of gloom the year before began now to bring her again into view. In a letter to Speed, March 27, he says: "It cannot be told how it thrills me with joy to hear you say you are 'far happier than you ever expected to be.' That much, I know, is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not at least sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, 'Enough, dear Lord.' I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since that fatal THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 223 first of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy but for the never- absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that !" The last paragraph of this letter contains a bit of sentiment by Lincoln in acknowledgment of a violet. In the margin of the letter which he gave me, Speed made this note in pencil : "The violet was sent by my wife, who dropped it in the letter as I was in the act of sealing it. How beautiful the acknowledg- ment !" This is a paragraph : "The sweet violet you enclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes to her." Meanwhile the coldness that existed between Lincoln and his "Mary" was gradually passing away, and with it went all of Lincoln's resolution never to renew the engagement. In a letter, July 4, he says; "I must gain confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability I once prided myself as the only chief gem of my character; that gem I lost, how and where 224 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. you know too well. I have not regained it ; and until I do I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I believe now that had you understood my case at the time as well as I under- stood yours afterwards, by the aid you would have given me I should have sailed through clear ; but that does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the like of that again ... I always was superstitious, I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing Fanny and you to- gether, which union I have no doubt he had fore- ordained. Whatever he designs he will do for me yet. 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,' is my text just now. If, as you say, you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this letter, but for its reference to our friend here; let her seeing it depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs ; and if she has not, do not let her. I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make so little headway in the world that I drop back in a month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sowing." The last letter, and the one which closes this series, was written October 5, 1842. In it he simply announces his "duel with Shields," and then goes on to "narrate the particulars of the duelling busi- ness, which still rages in this city." This referred to a challenge from the belligerent Shields to William Butler, and another from General White- sides to Dr. Merryman. In the latter, Lincoln acted as the "friend of Merryman," but in neither THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 225 case was there any encounter, and both ended in smoke. The concluding paragraph of this letter is the most singular in the entire correspondence. I g-ive it entire without further comment: "But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days of September till the middle of Feb- ruary you never tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you married her, I well know, for without, you could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question: 'Are you in feeling as well as judgment glad you are married as you are?' From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to be tolerated, but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know." Lincoln again applied himself to the law. He re-entered the practice, after the long hiatus of rest, with renewed vigor. He permitted the memory of his engagement with Mary Todd to trouble him no longer. Their paths had diverged, the pain of the separation was over, and the whole thing was a history of the past. And so it might ever have remained but for the intervention of a very shrewd and sagacious lady — one who was capable of achieving success anywhere in the ranks of diplo- 226 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. macy. This lady was the wife of Simeon Francis, the editor of the Sangamon Journal. She was a warm friend of Mary Todd and a leader in society. Her husband was warmly attached to Lincoln. He ran the Whig organ, and entertained great admira- tion for Lincoln's brains and noble qualities. The esteem was mutual, and it is no stretch of the truth to say that for years Lincoln exercised undisputed control of the columns of the Journal himself. Whatever he wrote or had written, went into the editorial page without question. Mrs. Francis, sharing her husband's views of Lincoln's glorious possibilities, and desiring to do Mary Todd a kindly act, determined to bring about a reconcilia- tion. She knew that Miss Todd had by letter a few days after "that fatal first of January, 1841," as Lincoln styled it, released him from the en- gagement, and that since then their relations had been strained, if not entirely broken off. As she viewed it. a marriage between a man as promising in the political world as Lincoln, and a woman as accomplished and brilliant in society as Mary Todd, would certainly add to the attractions of Spring- field and reflect great credit on those who brought the union about. She was a great social enter- tainer, and one day arranged a gathering at her house for the express purpose of bringing these two people together. Both were invited and both attended ; but neither suspected the other's pres- ence. Having arranged things so ingeniously and with so much discretion, it was no difficult task for the hostess to bring the couple together by a warm THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 227 introduction and the encouraging admonition, "Be friends again." Much to the surprise of both they found the web woven around them. They entered into the spirit of the reconciliation, and found Mrs. Francis' roof an inviting place for many succeeding meetings. A wall reared itself between them and the past, and they started again under the auspi- cious omens of another engagement. The tact of a woman and the diplomacy of society had accom- plished what love had long since despaired of ever doing or seeing done. The meetings in the parlor of Mrs. Francis' house were conducted with no little privacy. At first even Mrs. Edwards knew nothing of it, but presently it came to her ears. "I asked Mary," said this lady, "why she was so secretive about it. She said evasively that after all that had occurred, it was best to keep the courtship from all eyes and ears. Men and women and the whole world were uncertain and slippery, and if misfortune befell the engagement all knowledge of it would be hidden from the world."* It is unnecessary to prolong the account of this strange and checkered courtship. The intervention of the affair with Shields, which will be detailed in a subsequent chapter, in no way impeded, if it did not hasten the marriage. One morning in Novem- ber, Lincoln, hastening to the room of his friend James H. Matheney before the latter had arisen from bed, informed him that he was to be married * Statement, January 10, 1866, MS. 228 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. that night, and requested him to attend as best man.* That same morning Miss Todd called on her friend Julia M. Jayne, who afterward married Lyman Trumbull, and made a similar request. The Edwardses were notified, and made such meager preparations as were possible on so short notice. License was obtained during the day, the minister, Charles N. Dresser,f was sent for, and in the evening of November 4, 1842, "as pale and trembling as if * "Marriages in Springfield up to that time had been rather commonplace affairs. Lincoln's was perhaps the first one ever performed with all the requirements of the Episcopal ceremony. A goodly number of friends had gathered, and while witnessing the ceremony one of the most amusing incidents imaginable oc- curred. No description on paper can do it justice. Among those present was Thomas C. Brown, one of the judges of the Su- preme Court. He was in truth an "old-timer," and had the virtue of saying just what he thought, without regard to place or surroundings. He had been on the bench for many years and was not less rough than quaint and curious. There was, of course, a perfect hush in the room as the ceremony progressed. Brown was standing just behind Lincoln. Old Parson Dresser, in canonical robes, with much and impressive solemnity recited the Episcopal service. He handed Lincoln the ring, who. plac- ing it on the bride's finger, repeated the Church formula, 'With this ring I thee endow with ail my goods and chattels, lands and tenements.' Brown, who had never witnessed such a proceed- ing, was struck with its utter absurdity. 'God Almighty ! Lin- coln,' he ejaculated, loud enough to be heard by all, 'the statute fixes all that!' This unlooked-for interruption almost upset the old parson ; he had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and for the moment it seemed as if he would break down ; but presently re- covering his gravity, he hastily pi^onounced them husband and wife." — Letter, James H. Matheney, MS., Aug. 21, 1888. t "My father, Rev. Charles Dresser, was a graduate of Brown University, Providence, R. I., of the class of 1822." — Thomas W. Dresser, MS. letter, Sept. 17, 1888. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 229 being driven to slaughter," Abraham Lincoln was at last married to Mary Todd.* One great trial of his life was now over, and another still greater one was yet to come. To me it has always seemed plain that Mr. Lincoln mar- ried Mary Todd to save his honor, and in doing that he sacrificed his domestic peace. He had searched himself subjectively, introspectively, thoroughly; he knew he did not love her, but he had promised to marry her! The hideous thought came up like a nightmare. As the "fatal first of January, 1841," neared, the clouds around him blackened the heavens and his life almost went out with the storm. But soon the skies cleared. Friends interposed their aid to avert a calamity, and at last he stood face to face with the great conflict between honor and domestic peace. He chose the former, and with it years of self-torture, sacrificial pangs, and the loss forever of a happy home. With Miss Todd a different motive, but one equally as unfortunate, prompted her adherence to the union. To marry Lincoln meant not a life of luxury and ease, for Lincoln was not a man to ac- cumulate wealth ; but in him she saw position in soci- ety, prominence in the world, and the grandest so- cial distinction. By that means her ambition would be satisfied. Until that fatal New Year's day in 1841 she may have loved him, but his action on * While dressing for the wedding in his room at Butler's house, the latter's little boy, Speed, seeing Lincoln so hand- somely attired, in boyish innocence asked him where he was go- ing? "To hell, I suppose." was Lincoln's reply. 230 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. that occasion forfeited her affection. He had crushed her proud, womanly spirit. She felt de- graded in the eyes of the world. Love fled at the approach of revenge. Some writer — it is Junius, I believe — has said that, "Injuries may be forgiven and forgotten, but insults admit of no compensation: they degrade the mind in its own self-esteem and force it to recover its level by revenge." Whether Mrs. Lincoln really was moved by the spirit of re- venge or not she acted along the lines of human conduct. She led her husband a wild and merry dance. If, in time, she became soured at the world it was not without provocation, and if in later years she unchained the bitterness of a disappointed and outraged nature, it followed as logically as an effect does the cause. I have told this sad story as I know and have learned it. In rehearsing the varied scenes of the drama,* I have unearthed a few facts that seem half- * For many years I had reason to believe that Sarah Rick- ard, who was a sister of Mrs. William Butler, had been the re- cipient of some attentions at the hand of Mr. Lincoln. The lady, long since married, is now living in a Western State. I applied to her for information recently, and after some entreaty re- ceived this answer in her own handwriting: "As an old friend I will answer the question propounded to me, though I can scarcely see what good it can do history. Mr. Lincoln did make a proposal of marriage to me in the summer, or perhaps later, in the year of 1840. He brought to my attention the ac- counts in the Bible of the patriarch Abraham's marriage to Sarah, and used that historical union as an argument in his own behalf. My reason for declining his proposal was the wide difference in our ages. I was then only sixteen, and had given the subject of matrimony but very little, if any, thought. I entertained the highest regard for Mr. Lincoln. He seemed almost like an older brother, being, as it were, one of my sister's family." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 231 buried, perhaps, but they were not destined to lay buried deep or long. The world will have the truth as long as the name of Lincoln is remembered by mankind. There were two things Mr. Lincoln always seemed willing to forget. One was his unparlia- mentary escape with Joseph Gillespie from the Leg- islature by jumping through the church window, in 1839, and the other was the difficulty with James Shields, or, as he expressed it in a letter to Speed, the "duel with Shields." Other incidents in his career he frequently called up in conversation with friends, but in after years he seldom if ever referred to the affair w T ith Shields. People in Illinois did gradually forget or, at least, cease mention of it, but in more remote quarters where Mr. Lincoln was less extensively known, the thing, much to his regret, kept rising to the surface. During a visit which I made to the Eastern States in 1858, I was often asked for an account of the so-called duel; so often, in fact, that on my return home I told Mr. Lincoln of it. "If all the good things I have ever done," he said regretfully, "are remembered as long and well as my scrape with Shields, it is plain I shall not soon be forgotten." James Shields, a "gallant, hot-headed bachelor from Tyrone county, Ireland," and a man of inor- dinate vanity, had been elected Auditor of State. Encouraged somewhat by the prominence the office gave him, he at once assumed a conspicuous posi- tion in the society of Springfield. He was ex- tremely sensitive by nature, but exposed himself to 232 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. merciless ridicule by attempting to establish his supremancy as a beau among the ladies. Blind to his own defects, and very pronounced in support of every act of the Democratic party, he made himself the target for all the bitterness and ridicule of the day. It happened that the financial resources of the State, owing to the collapse of the great inter- nal improvement system, were exceedingly limited, and people were growing restless under what they deemed excessive taxation. The State officers were all Democrats, and during the summer they issued an order declining to receive any more State Bank- notes or bills in payment of taxes. This made the tax-payer's burdens greater than ever, as much of this paper remained outstanding in the hands of the people. The order met with opposition from every quarter — the Whigs of course losing no opportunity to make it as odious as possible. It was perfectly natural, therefore, that such an ardent Whig as Lincoln should join in the popular denunciation. Through the columns of the Springfield Journal, of which he had the undisputed use, he determined to encourage the opposition by the use of his pen. No object seemed to merit more ridicule and carica- ture than the conspicuous figure of the Auditor of State. At this time Lincoln was enjoying stolen conferences under the hospitable roof of Mrs. Francis with Mary Todd and her friend Julia M. Jayne. These two young ladies, to whom he con- fided his purpose, encouraged it and offered to lend their aid. Here he caught the idea of puncturing THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 233 Shields. The thing took shape in an article pub- lished in the Journal, purporting to have come from a poor widow, who with her pockets full of State Bank paper was still unable to obtain the coveted receipt for her taxes. It was written by Lincoln and was headed : A letter from the Lost Townships. Lost Townships, August 27, 1842. Dear Mr. Printer, I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I'm quite encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I think the printing of my letters will be a good thing all around — it will give me the benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the advantage of knowing what's going on in the Lost Townships, and give your paper respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday afternoon I hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor S . . . . to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, set- ting on the doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He sorter started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. "Why," says he, "I'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca !" "What about?" says I; "ain't its hair the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an honester women in the Lost Townships than" — "Than who?" says he; "what the mischief are you about?" I began to see I was running the wrong trail, and so says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, that's all. But what is it you're mad about?" "Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since 234 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. harvest, getting out wheat and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my tax this year and a little school debt I owe ; and now, just as I've got it, here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full of 'Glo- rious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and behold ! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, have forbid- den the tax collectors and school commissioners to receive State paper at all ; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't now believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough to pay my taxes and that school debt." I was a good deal thunderstruck myself ; for that was the first I had heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same fix with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without knowing what to say. At last says I, "Mr. S — , let me look at that paper." He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. "There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence and imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some ill- natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a little on the contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. "Why," says I, looking as digni- fied and thoughtful as I could, "it seems pretty tough, to be sure, to have to raise silver where there's none to be raised ; but then you see, 'there will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." "Loss ! damnation !" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, I defy the world — I defy — I defy — yes, I defy even you, Aunt 'Becca, to show how the people can lose anything by pay- ing their taxes in State paper." "Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, and they are a desarnin' set of men. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 235 "But," says I, "I guess you're mistaken about what the proclamation says. It don't say the people will lose anything by the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says 'there will be danger of loss' ; and though it is tolerable plain that the people can't lose by paying their taxes in something they can get easier than silver, instead of having to pay sil- ver; and though it's just as plain that the State can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can pay that paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar; — still there is danger of loss to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, we can't get along without officers of State." "Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always hurrahing for." "Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I; you know I belong to the meetin', and swearin' hurts my feel- ings." "Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to make Dr. Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only that Ford may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty- four hundred a year, and Carpenter his sixteen hun- dred a year, and all without 'danger of loss' by tak- ing it in State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain enough now what these officers of State mean by 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, actually lost fifteen hun- dred dollars out of the three thousand that two of these 'officers of State' let him steal from the treas- ury, by being compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we don't have a proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this loss to Wash in silver." And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I couldn't think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over the paper 236 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. again. "Ay ! here's another proclamation, or some- thing like it." "Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient servant, James Shields, Auditor." "Aha !" says Jeff, "one of them same three fel- lows again. Well, read it, and let's hear what of it." I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this measure is to suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year." "Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't want to hear of it." "Oh! may be not," says I. "I say it — is — a — lie. Suspend the collection, indeed ! Will the collectors, that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to suspend it? Is there anything in law requiring then to perjure themselves at the bidding of James Shields? "Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be sat- isfied with swallowing him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And would he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be off about the time it came to taking their places ? "And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what then? The collec- tors, would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the like, and sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without valuation or redemption. Why, Shields didn't believe that story himself : it was never meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ till five days after the proclamation? Why didn't Carlin and Carpenter sign it as well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a lie, and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is out of the question; and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 237 as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you might as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to it, it's all an infernal Whig lie!" "A Whig lie ! Highty tighty !" "Yes, a Whig lie ; and it's just like everything the cursed British Whigs do. First they'll do some divilment, and then they'll tell a lie to hide it. And they don't care how plain a lie it is : they think they can cram any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call the Democrats." "Why, Jeff, you're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a Whig!" "Yes, I do." "Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as you call it." "I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats see the deviltry the Whigs are at." "Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco — I mean this Democratic State." "So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." "Tyler appointed him?" "Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him ; or, if it wasn't him, it was old Granny Harri- son, and that's all one. I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks shows it ; everything about him shows it : if I was deaf and blind, I could tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield last winter. They had a sort of a gatherin' there one night among the grandees, they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all the handsome widows and married women, finickin' about trying to look like gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like bundles of fodder that hadn't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' pretty 238 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. bad. And then they had tables all around the house kivered over with [ ] caps and pincush- ions and ten thousands such little knic-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the fellows that were bowin' and scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. They wouldn't let no Democrats in, for fear they'd disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same fellow Shields floatin' about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. "He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t'other one, and sufferin' great loss because it wasn't silver instead of State paper ; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in, — his very feat- ures, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you suiter; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and so interesting.' "As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it about a quar- ter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow !' says I to myself, 'if that was one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you'd get a brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.' He a Democrat ! Fiddlesticks ! I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no mistake : nobody but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself." "Well," says I, "maybe he is ; but, if he is, I'm mistaken the worst sort. Maybe so, maybe so ; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it ; I'll be a Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you shall be a W T hig if he turns out a Democrat." "A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 239 "Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the prin- ter." "Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out that Shields is a Democrat, I never will"— "Jefferson ! Jefferson !" "What do you want, Peggy?" "Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd of water; the child's been crying for a drink this livelong hour." "Let it die, then; it may as well die for water^as to be taxed to death to fatten officers of -State." Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been saying anything spiteful for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once you get at the foundation of him. I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "declare we like to forgot you altogether." "Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, everybody soon forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well enough to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary ones' tails for 'em, and no thanks to nobody." "Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad at me for making Jeff neg- lect her so long. And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't care about it for my self, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who and what these officers of State are. It may help to send the pres- ent hypocritical set to where they belong, and to nil the places they now disgrace, with men who will do more work for less pay, and take a fewer airs while they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the 240 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. same men who get us into trouble will change their course; and yet it's pretty plain if some change for the better is not made, it's not long that either Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or calf's tail to wring. Yours truly, Rebecca . Within a week another epistle from Aunt Re- becca appeared, in which, among other things, she offered the gallant Shields her hand. This one was written by Miss Todd and Miss Jayne. I insert it without further comment : Lost Townships, September 8, 1842. Dear Mr. Printer: I was a-standin' at the spring yesterday a-wash- in' out butter when I seed Jim Snooks a-ridin' up towards the house for very life, when, jist as I was a-wonderin' what on airth was the matter with him, he stops suddenly, and ses he, "Aunt 'Becca, here's somethin' for you;" and with that he hands out your letter. Well, you see, I steps out towards him, not thinkin' that I had both hands full of but- ter; and seein' I couldn't take the letter, you know, without greasin' it, I ses, "Jim, jist you open it, and read it for me." Well, Jim opens it and reads it; and would you believe it, Mr. Editor, I was so com- pletely dum founded and turned into stone that there I stood in the sun a-workin' the butter, and it a-running on the ground, while he read the letter, that I never thunk what I was about till the hull on't run melted on the ground and was lost. Now, sir, it's not for the butter, nor the price of the but- ter, but, the Lord have massy on us, I wouldn't have sich another fright for a whole firkin of it. Why, when I found out that it was the man what Jeff seed down to the fair that had demanded the THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 241 author of my letters, threatnin' to take personal satisfaction of the writer, I was so skart that I tho't I should quill-wheel right where I was. You say that Mr. S is offended at being compared to cats' fur, and is as mad as a March hare (that ain't fur), because I told about the squeezin'. Now I want you to tell Mr. S that, rather than fight, I'll make any apology ; and, if he wants personal satisfaction, let him only come here, and he may squeeze my hand as hard as I squeezed the butter, and, if that ain't personal satisfaction, I can only say that he is the fust man that was not sat- isfied with squeezin' my hand. If this should not answer, there is one thing more that I would rather do than get a lickin'. I have long expected to die a widow; but, as Mr. S is rather good- looking than otherwise, I must say I don't care if we compromise the matter by — really, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushin' — but I — it must come out — I — but widowed modesty — well, if I must, I must — wouldn't he— may be sorter let the old grudge drap if I was to consent to be — be — h-i-s w-i-f-e? I know he's a fightin' man, and would rather fight than eat; but isn't marryin' better than fighting though it does sometimes run in to it? And I don't think, upon the whole, that I'd be sich a bad match neither: I'm not over sixty, and am jist four feet three in my bare feet, and not much more around the girth; and for color, I wouldn't turn my back to nary a gal in the Lost Townships. But, after all, maybe I'm countin' my chickins before they are hatched, and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternative reserved for me may be a lickin'. Jeff tells me the way these fire-eaters do is to give the challenged party choice of weapons, etc., which bein' the case, I'll tell you in confidence that I never fights with anything but broomsticks or hot water or a shovelful of coals or some such thing; 242 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. the former of which, being somewhat like a shilla- lah, may not be very objectional to him. I will give him choice, however, in one thing, and that is, whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeches or he petticoats, for, I presume that change is suffi- cient to place us on an equality. Yours, etc., Rebecca . P. S. — Jist say to your friend, if he concludes to marry rather than fight, I shall only in force one condition, that is, if he should ever happen to gallant any young gals home of nights from our house, he must not squeeze their hands. Not contented with their epistolary efforts, the ladies invoked the muse. ''Rebecca" deftly trans- formed herself into "Cathleen," and in jingling ryhme sang the praises of Shields, and congratulated him over the prospect of an early marriage to the widow. Following are the verses, rhyme, metre, and all : Ye Jew's harps awake ! The Auditor's won. Rebecca the widow has gained Erin's son; The pride of the north from Emerald Isle Has been wooed and won by a woman's smile. The combat's relinquished, old loves all forgot: To the widow he's bound. Oh, bright be his lot! In the smiles of the conquest so lately achieved. Joyful be his bride, "widowed modesty" relieved, The footsteps of time tread lightly on flowers, May the cares of this world ne'er darken his hours! But the pleasures of life are fickle and coy As the smiles of a maiden sent off to destroy. Happy groom! in sadness far distant from thee The fair girls dream only of past times of glee THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 243 Enjoyed in thy presence; whilst the soft blarnied store Will be fondly remembered as relics of yore, And hands that in rapture you oft would have pressed, In prayer will be clasped that your lot may be blest. Cathleen. The satire running through these various com- positions, and the publicity their appearance in the Journal gave them, had a most wonderful effect on the vain and irascible Auditor of State. He could no longer endure the merriment and ridicule that met him from every side. A man of cooler head might have managed it differently, but in the case of a high-tempered man like Shields he felt that his integrity had been assailed and that nothing but an "affair of honor" would satisfy him. Through General John D. Whiteside he demanded of edi- tor Francis the name of the author. The latter hunted up Lincoln, who directed him to give his name and say nothing about the ladies. The fur- ther proceedings in this grotesque drama were so graphically detailed by the friends of both parties in the columns of the Journal at that time, that I copy their letters as a better and more faithful narrative than can be obtained from any other source. The letter of Shields' second, General Whiteside, appearing first in the Journal, finds the same place in this chapter : "Springfield, Oct. 3, 1842. "To the Editor of the Sangamon Journal: "Sirs: To prevent misrepresentation of the recent affair between Messrs. Shields and Lincoln, I think it proper to give a brief narrative of the 244 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. facts of the case, as they came within my knowl- edge ; for the truth of which I hold myself respon- sible, and request you to give the same pub- lication. An offensive article in relation to Mr. Shields appeared in the Sangamon Journal of the 2d of September last; and, on demanding the author, Mr. Lincoln was given up by the editor. Mr. Shields, previous to this demand, made arrangements to go to Ouincy on public business ; and before his return Mr. Lincoln had left for Tremont to attend the court, with the intention, as we learned, of remaining on the circuit several weeks. Mr. Shields, on his return, requested me to accompany him to Tremont ; and, on arriving there, we found that Dr. Merryman and Mr. Butler had passed us in the night, and got there before us. We arrived in Tremont on the 17th ult., and Mr. Shields addressed a note to Mr. Lincoln immedi- ately, informing him that he was given up as the author of some articles that appeared in the Sanga- mon Journal (one more over the signature having made its appearance at this time), and requesting him to retract the offensive allusions contained in said articles in relation to his private character. Mr. Shields handed this note to me to deliver to Mr. Lincoln, and directed me, at the same time, not to enter into any verbal communication, or be the bearer of any verbal explanation, as such were always liable to misapprehension. This note was delivered by me to Mr. Lincoln, stating, at the same time, that I would call at his convenience for an answer. Mr. Lincoln, in the evening of the same day, handed me a letter addressed to Mr. Shields. In this he gave or offered no explanation, but stated therein that he could not submit to answer further, on the ground that Mr. Shield's note contained an assumption of facts and also a menace. Mr. Shields then addressed him another THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 245 note, in which he disavowed all intention to men- ace, and requested to know whether he (Mr. Lin- coln) was author of either of the articles which appeared in the Journal, headed 'Lost Townships,' and signed 'Rebecca'; and, if so, he repeated his request of a retraction of the offensive matter in relation to his private character; if not, his denial would be held sufficient. This letter was returned to Mr. Shields unanswered, with a verbal statement 'that there could be no further negotiation be- tween them until the first note was withdrawn.' Air. Shields thereupon sent a note designating me as a friend, to which Mr. Lincoln relied by desig- nating Dr. Merryman. These three last notes passed on Monday morning, the 19th. Dr. Merry- man handed me Mr. Lincoln's last note when by ourselves. I remarked to Dr. Merryman that the matter was not submitted to us, and that I would propose that he and myself should pledge our words of honor to each other to try to agree upon terms of amicable arrangement, and compel our principals to accept of them. To this he readily assented, and we shook hands upon the pledge. It was then mutually agreed that we should adjourn to Springfield, and there procrastinate the matter, for the purpose of effecting the secret arrangement between him and myself. All this I kept concealed from Mr. Shields. Our horse had got a little lame in going to Tremont, and Dr. Merryman invited me to take a seat in his buggy. I accepted the invita- tion the more readily, as I thought that leaving Mr. Shields in Tremont until his horse would be in better condition to travel would facilitate the pri- vate agreement between Dr. Merryman and myself. I travelled to Springfield part of the way with him, and part with Mr. Lincoln; but nothing passed between us on the journey in relation to the matter in hand. We arrived in Springfield on Monday 246 THE L1FE 0F LINCOLN. night. About noon on Tuesday,, to my astonish- ment, a proposition was made to meet in Missouri, within three miles of Alton, on the next Thursday! The weapons, cavalry broadswords of the largest size; the parties to stand on each side of a barrier, and to be confined to a limited space. As I had not been consulted at all on the subject, and con- sidering the private understanding between Dr. IVlerryman and myself, and it being known that Mr. Shields was left at Tremont, such a proposition took me by surprise. However, being determined not to violate the laws of the State, I declined agreeing upon the terms until we should meet in Missouri. Immediately after, I called upon Dr. Merryman and withdrew the pledge of honor be- tween him and myself in relation to a secret arrange- ment. I started after this to meet Mr. Shields, and met him about twenty miles from Springfield. It was late on Tuesday night when we both reached the city and learned that Dr. Merryman had left for Missouri, Mr. Lincoln having left before the propo- sition was made, as Dr. Merryman had himself informed me. The time and place made it neces- sary to start at once. We left Springfield at eleven o'clock on Tuesday night, travelled all night, and arrived in Hillsborough on Wednesday morning, where we took in General Ewing. From there we went to Alton, where we arrived on Thursday; and, as the proposition required three friends on each side, I was joined by General Ewing and Dr. Hope, as the friends of Mr. Shields. We then crossed to Missouri, where a proposition was made by General Hardin and Dr. English (who had arrived there in the mean time as mutual friends) to refer the matter to, I think, four friends for a settlement. This I believed Mr. Shields would refuse, and de- clined seeing him; but Dr. Hope, who conferred with him upon the subject, returned and stated that THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 247 Mr. Shields declined settling the matter through any other than the friends he had selected to stand by him on that occasion. The friends of both the parties finally agreed to withdraw the papers (tem- porarily) to give the friends of Mr. Lincoln an opportunity to explain. Whereupon the friends of Mr. Lincoln, to wit, Messrs. Merryman, Bledsoe, and Butler, made a full and satisfactory explanation in relation to the article which appeared in the Sangamon Journal of the 2d, the only one written by him. This was all done without the knowledge or consent of Mr. Shields, and he refused to ac- cede to it, until Dr. Hope, General Ewing, and myself declared the apology sufficient, and that we could not sustain him in going further. I think it necessary to state further, that no explanation or apology had been previously offered on the part of Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Shields, and that none was ever communicated by me to him, nor was any even offered to me, unless a paper read to me by Dr. Merryman after he had handed me the broadsword proposition on Tuesday. I heard so little of the reading of the paper, that I do not know fully what it purported to be; and I was the less inclined to inquire, as Mr. Lincoln was then gone to Missouri, and Mr. Shields not yet arrived from Tremont. In fact, I could not entertain any offer of the kind, unless upon my own responsibility ; and that I was not disposed to do after what had already trans- pired. "I make this statement, as I am about to be absent for some time, and I think it due to all con- cerned to give a true version of the matter before I leave. "Your obedient servant, "John D. Whiteside." 248 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. Springfield, October 8, 1842. Editors of the Journal: Gents : — By your paper of Friday, I discover that General Whiteside has published his version of the late affair between Messrs. Shields and Lincoln, I now bespeak a hearing of my version of the same affair, which shall be true and full as to all mate- rial facts. On Friday evening, the 16th of September, I learned that Mr. Shields and General Whiteside had started in pursuit of Mr. Lincoln, who was at Tre- mont, attending court. I knew that Mr. Lincoln was wholly unpractised both as to the diplomacy and weapons commonly employed in similar affairs ; and I felt it my duty, as a friend, to be with him, and, so far as in my power, to prevent any advantage being taken of him as to either his honor or his life. Accordingly, Mr. Butler and myself started, passed Shields and Whiteside in the night, and arrived at Tremont ahead of them on Saturday morning. I told Mr. Lincoln what was brewing, and asked him what course he proposed to himself. He stated that he was wholy opposed to duelling, and would do anything to avoid it that might not degrade him in the estimation of himself and friends; but, if such degradation or a fight were the only alterna- tives, he would fight. In the afternoon Shields and Whiteside arrived, and very soon the former sent to Mr. Lincoln, by the latter, the following note or letter : — Tremont, September 17, 1842. A. Lincoln, Esq. : — I regret that my absence on public business compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little longer than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to account for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business that would not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling you with this THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 249 communication, the disagreeable nature of which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in Springfield while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in such a way amongst both my political friends and opponents, as to escape the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, 1 have become the object of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse which, were I capable of submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles of the most personal nature, and calcu- lated to degrade me, have made their appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, through the medium of my friend, General Whiteside, that you are the author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have become, by some means or other, the object of secret hostility. I will not take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this, but I will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute re- traction of all offensive allusions used by you in these communications, in relation to my private character and standing as a man, as an apology for the insults con- veyed in them. This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. Your ob't serv't, J as. Shields. About sunset, General Whiteside called again, and secured from Mr. Lincoln the following an- swer to Mr. Shield's note : — Tremoxt, September 17, 1842. Jas. Shields, Esq. : — Your note of to-day was handed me by General Whiteside. In that note you say you have been informed, through the medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and, without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point out what is offensive in them, you 250 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. demand an unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts, and so much of menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any further than 1 have, and to add, that the consequences to which I suppose you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it pos- sibly could to you. Respecefully, A. Lincoln. In about an hour, General Whiteside called again with another note from Mr. Shields ; but after con- ferring with Mr. Butler for a long time, say two or three hours, returned without presenting the note to Mr. Lincoln. This was in consequence of an assurance from Mr. Butler that Mr. Lincoln could not receive any communication from Mr. Shields, unless it were a withdrawal of his first note, or a challenge. Mr. Butler further stated to General Whiteside, that, on the withdrawal of the first note, and a proper and gentlemanly request for an ex- planation, he had no doubt one would be given. General Whiteside admitted that that was the course Mr. Shields ought to pursue, but deplored that his furious and intractable temper prevented his having any influence with him to that end. General Whiteside then requested us to wait with him until Monday morning, that he might endeavor to bring Mr. Shields to reason. On Monday morning he called and presented Mr. Lincoln the same note as Mr. Butler says he had brought on Saturday evening. It was as fol- lows : — Tremont, September 17, 1842. A. Lincoln, Esq. : — In your reply to my note of this date, you intimate that I assume facts and menace con- sequences, and that you cannot submit to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little more THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 251 particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to understand that you are the author of an article which appeared, I think, in that paper of the 2d September inst, headed "The Lost Townships" and signed Rebecca or 'Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking whether you are the author of said article, or any other of the same signature which has appeared in any of the late numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my request of an absolute retraction of all offensive allusions contained therein in relation to my private character and standing. If you are not the author of any of the articles, your denial will be sufficient. I will say further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself justice. Your ob't serv't, Jas. Shields. This Mr. Lincoln perused, and returned to General Whiteside, telling him verbally, that he did not think it consistent with his honor to negotiate for peace with Mr. Shields, unless Mr. Shields would withdraw his former offensive letter. In a very short time General Whiteside called with a note from Mr. Shields, designating General White- side as his friend, to which Mr. Lincoln instantly replied designating me as his. On meeting General Whiteside, he proposed that we should pledge our honor to each other that we would endeavor to settle the matter amicably ; to which I agreed, and stated to him the only conditions on which it could be settled; viz., the withdrawal of Mr. Shields's first note, which he appeared to think reasonable, and regretted that the note had been written, saying however, that he had endeavored to prevail on Mr. Shields to write a milder one, but had not suc- ceeded. He added, too, that I must promise not to mention it, as he would not dare to let Mr. Shields know that he was negotiating peace; for, said he, "He would challenge me next, and as soon cut my throat as not." Not willing that he should 252 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. suppose my principal less dangerous than his own, I promised not to mention our pacific intentions to Mr. Lincoln or any other person; and we started for Springfield forthwith. We all, except Mr. Shields, arrived in Springfield late at night on Monday. We discovered that the affair had, somehow, got great publicity in Spring- field, and that an arrest was probable. To prevent this, it is agreed by Mr. Lincoln and myself that he should leave early on Tuesday morning. Ac- cordingly, he prepared the follownig instructions for my guide, on a suggestion from Mr. Butler that he had reason to believe that an attempt would be made by the opposite party to have the matter accommodated : In case Whiteside shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without further difficulty, let him know that, if the present papers be withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author of the articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him gentlemanly satisfac- tion if I am the author, and this without menace or dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that the following answer shall be given: "I did write the 'Lost Township' letter which appeared in the Journal of the 2d inst., but had no participation in any form in any other article allud- ing to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect. I had no intention of injuring your personal or private character, or standing as a man or a gentle- man ; and I did not then think, and do not now think, that that article could produce, or has pro- duced, that effect against you; and had I antici- pated such an effect, I would have forborne to write it. And I will add, that your conduct towards me, so far as I knew, had always been gentlemanly, and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 253 that I had no personal pique against you, and no cause for any." t . If this should be done, I leave it with you to manage what shall and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the fight are to be : 1st. Weapons: — Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at Jackson- ville. 2d. Position:— A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge on the ground as the lines between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. 3d. Time:— On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at 5 o'clock. 4th. Place :— Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. Any preliminary details coming within the above rules, you are at liberty to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits. In the course of the forenoon I met General Whiteside, and he again intimated a wish to adjust the matter amicably. I then read to him Mr. Lin- coln's instructions to an adjustment, and the terms of the hostile meeting, if there must be one, both at the same time. He replied that it was useless to talk ot an ad- 254 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. justment, if it could only be effected by the with- drawal of Mr. Shield's paper, for such withdrawal Mr. Shields would never consent to ; adding, that he would as soon think of asking Mr. Shields to "butt his brains out against a brick wall as to with- draw that paper." He proceeded: "I see but one course — that is a desperate remedy: 'tis to tell them, if they will not make the matter up, they must fight us." I replied, that, if he chose to fight Mr. Shields to compel him to do right, he might do so ; but as for Mr. Lincoln, he was on the defensive, and, I believe, in the right, and I should do nothing to compel him to do wrong. Such withdrawal having been made indispensable by Mr. Lincoln, I cut the matter short as to an adjustment, and I proposed to General Whiteside to accept the terms of the fight, which he refused to do until Mr. Shields' arrival in town, but agreed, verbally, that Mr. Lin- coln's friends should procure the broadswords, and take them to the ground. In the afternoon he came to me, saying that some persons were swear- ing out affidavits to have us arrested, and that he intended to meet Mr. Shields immediately, and proceed to the place designated, lamenting, how- ever, that I would not delay the time, that he might procure the interference of Governor Ford and Gen- eral Ewing to mollify Mr. Shields. I told him that an accommodation, except upon the terms I men- tioned, was out of question ; that to delay the meeting was to facilitate our arrest ; and, as I was determined not to be arrested, I should leave the town in fifteen minutes. I then pressed his accept- ance of the preliminaries, which he disclaimed upon the ground that it would interfere with his oath of office as Fund Commissioner. I then, with two other friends, went to Jacksonville, where we joined Mr. Lincoln about 11 o'clock on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we procured the broadswords, THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 255 and proceeded to Alton, where we arrived about 11 o'clock A. M., on Thursday. The other party were in town before us. We crossed the river, and they soon followed. Shortly after, General Hardin and Dr. English presented to General Whiteside and myself the following note : Alton, September 22, 1842. Messrs. Whiteside and Merbyman: — As the mutual personal friends of Messrs. Shields and Lincoln, but with- out authority from either, we earnestly desire to see a reconciliation of the misunderstanding which exists be- tween them. Such difficulties should always be arranged amicably, if it is possible to do so with honor to both parties. Believing, ourselves, that such an arrangement can possibly be effected, we respectfully but earnestly sub- mit the following proposition for your consideration: Let the whole difficulty be submitted to four or more gentlemen, to be selected by ourselves, who shall con- sider the affair, and report thereupon for your considera- tion. John J. Hardin. R. W. English. To this proposition General Whiteside agreed : I declined doing so without consulting Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln remarked that, as they had accepted the proposition, he would do so, but directed that his friends should make no terms except those first proposed. Whether the adjustment was finally made upon these very terms and no other, let the following documents attest: Missouri, September 22, 1842. Gentlemen: — All papers in relation to the matter in controversy between Mr. Shields and Mr. Lincoln having been withdrawn by the friends of the parties concerned, the friends of Mr. Shields ask the friends of Mr. Lincoln to explain all offensive matter in the articles which ap- 256 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. appeared in the Sangamon Journal, of the 2d, 9th, and 16th of September, under the signature of "Rebecca," and headed "Lost Townships." It is due General Hardin and Mr. English to state that their interference was of the most courteous and gentlemanly character. John D. Whiteside. Wm. Lee D. Ewing. T. M. Hope. Missouri, September 22, 1842. Gentlemen: — All papers in relation to the matter in controversy between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Shields having been withdrawn by the friends of the parties concerned, we, the undersigned, friends of Mr. Lincoln, in accord- ance with your request that explanation of Mr. Lincoln's publication in relation to Mr. Shields in the Sangamon Journal of the 2d, 9th, and 16th of September be made, take pleasure in saying, that, although Mr. Lincoln was the writer of the article signed "Rebecca" in the Jour- nal of the 2d, and that only, yet he had no intention of injuring the personal or private character or standing of Mr. Shields as a gentleman or a man, and that Mr. Lin- coln did not think, nor does he now think, that said arti- cle could produce such an effect; and, had Mr. Lincoln an- ticipated such an effect, he would have forborne to write it. We will state further, that said article was written solely for political effect, and not to gratify any personal pique against Mr. Shields, for he had none and knew of no cause for any. It is due to General Hardin and Mr. English to say that their interference was of the most courteous and gentlemanly character. E. H. Merry man. A. T. Bledsoe. Wm. Butler. Let it be observed now, that Mr. Shields's friends, after agreeing to the arbitrament of four disin- terested gentlemen, declined the contract, saying that Mr. Shields wished his own friends to act for THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 257 him. They then proposed that we should explain without any withdrawal of papers. This was promptly and firmly refused, and general Whiteside himself pronounced the papers withdrawn. They then produced a note requesting us to "disavow" all offensive intentions in the publications, etc., etc. This we declined answering, and only responded to the above requested for an explanation. These are the material facts in relation to the matter, and I think present the case in a very dif- ferent light from the garbled and curtailed statment of General Whiteside. Why he made that state- ment I know not, unless he wished to detract from the honor of Mr. Lincoln. This was ungenerous, more particularly as he on the ground requested us not to make in our explanation any quotations from the "Rebecca papers ;" also, not to make public the terms of reconciliation, and to unite with them in defending the honorable character of the adjustment. General Whiteside, in his publication, says : "The friends of both parties agreed to withdraw the papers (temporarily) to give the friends of Mr. Lincoln an opportunity to explain." This I deny. I say the papers were withdrawn to enable Mr. Shields's friends to ask an explanation ; and I ap- peal to the documents for proof of my position. By looking over these documents, it will be seen that Mr. Shields had not before asked for an expla- nation, but had all the time been dictatorially insist- ing on a retraction. General Whiteside, in his communication, brings to light much of Mr. Shields's manifestations of bravery behind the scenes. I can do nothing of the kind for Mr. Lincoln. He took his stand when I first met him at Tremont, and maintained it calmly to the last, without difficulty or difference between himself and his friends. 258 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. I cannot close this article, lengthly as it is, with- out testifying to the honorable and gentlemanly conduct of General Ewing and Dr. Hope, nor indeed can I say that I saw anything objectionable in the course of General Whiteside up to the time of his communication. This is so replete with pre- varication and misrepresentation, that I cannot accord to the General that candor which I once supposed him to possess. He complains that I did not procrastinate time according to agreement. He forgets that by his own act he cut me off from that chance in inducing me, by promise, not to com- municate our secret contract to Mr. Lincoln. More- over, I could see no consistency in wishing for an extension of time at that stage of the affair, when in the outset they were in so precipitate a hurry that they could not wait three days for Mr. Lincoln to return from Tremont, but must hasten there, apparently with the intention of bringing the matter to a speedy issue. He complains, too, that, after inviting him to take a seat in the buggy I never broached the subject to him on our route here. But was I, the defendant in the case, with a challenge hanging over me, to make advances, and beg a reconciliation ? Absurd ! Moreover, the valorous General forgets that he beguiled the tedium of the journey by recounting to me his exploits in many a well-fought battle, — dangers by "flood and field," in which I don't believe he ever participated, — doubtless with a view to produce a salutary effect on my nerves, and impress me with a proper notion of his fire-eat- ing propensities. One more main point of his argument and I have done. The General seems to be troubled with a convenient shortness of memory on some occasions. He does not remember that any explanations were offered at any time, unless it were a paper read when THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 259 the "broadsword proposition" was tendered, when his mind was so confused by the anticipated clatter of broadswords, or something else, that he did "not know fully what it purported to be." The truth is, that, by unwisely refraining from mentioning it to his principal, he placed himself in a dilemma which he is now endeavoring to shuffle out of. By his in- efficiency and want of knowledge of those laws which govern gentlemen in matters of this kind, he has done great injustice to his principal, a gentleman who, I believe, is ready at all times to vindicate his honor manfully, but who has been unfortunate in the selection of his friends, and this fault he is now trying to wipe out by doing an act of still greater injustice to Mr. Lincoln. E. H. Merryman. * The following letter from Lincoln to his friend Speed fur- nishes the final outcome of the "duelling business." Springfield, October 5, 1842. Dear Speed: — You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now to in- form you that the duelling business still rages in this city. Day before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, pro- posed fighting next morning at sunrising in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred yards distance, with rifles. To this Whiteside, Shields's second, said 'no' because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whiteside chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of quasi-challenge invit- ing him to meet him at the Planter's House in St. Louis, on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his friend, and sent Whiteside a note, inquiring to know if he meant his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. Whiteside returned for answer that if Merry- man would meet him at the Planter's House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note, that he denied Whiteside's right to dictate time and place, but that he (Merry- man) would waive the question of time, and meet him at Louisiana, Mo. Upon my presenting this note to Whiteside, and stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had business in St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to notify Whiteside that he should publish the correspondence between them, with such comments as he saw fit. This I did. Tims it stood at bed-time last night. This morning Wliiteside, by his friend Shields, is praying for a new 260 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. Dr. Merryman's elaborate and graphic account of the meeting at the duelling ground and all the pre- liminary proceedings is as full and complete a his- tory of this serio-comic affair as any historian could give. Air. Lincoln, as mentioned in the outset of this chapter, in the law office and elsewhere, as a rule, refrained from discussing it. I only remember of hearing him say this, in reference to the duel : "I did not intend to hurt Shields unless I did so clearly in self-defense. If it had been necessary I could have split him from the crown of his head to the end of his backbone ;" and when one takes into consideration the conditions of weapons and position required in his instructions to Dr. Merry- man the boast does not seem impossible. The marriage of Lincoln in no way diminished his love for politics ; in fact, as we shall see later along, it served to stimulate his zeal in that direc- tion. He embraced every opportunity that offered for a speech in public. Early in 1842 he entered into the Washingtonian movement organized to sup- press the evils of intemperance. At the request of the society he delivered an admirable address, on Washington's birthday, in the Presbyterian Church, which, in keeping with former efforts, has been so often published that I need not quote it in full. I was then an ardent temperance reformer myself, and trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman's propo- sition to meet him at Louisiana, Mo., thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is preparing his publication ; while the town is in a ferment, and a street-fight somewhat anticipated. * * Tours forever, Lincoln." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 261 remember well how one paragraph of Lincoln's speech offended the church members who were present. Speaking of certain Christians who objected to the association of drunkards, even with the chance of reforming them, he said: "If they (the Christians) believe, as they profess, that Omnip- otence condescended to take on himself the form of sinful man, and as such die an ignominous death, surely they will not refuse submission to the in- finitely lesser condescension, for the temporal and perhaps eternal salvation of a large, erring, and un- fortunate class of their fellow-creatures. Xor is the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more from the absence of appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class." The avowal of these sentiments proved to be an unfortunate thing for Lincoln. The profess- ing Christians regarded the suspicion suggested in the first sentence as a reflection on the sincerity of their belief, and the last one had no better effect in reconciling them to his views. I was at the door of the church as the people passed out, and heard them discussing the speech. Many of them were open in the expression of their displeasure. "It's a shame," I heard one man say, "that he should be permitted to abuse us so in the house of the Lord." The truth was the society was composed mainly of the roughs and drunkards of the town, who had evinced a desire 262 THE L1FE 0F LINCOLN. to reform. Many of them were too fresh from the gutter to be taken at once into the society of such people as worshipped at the church where the speech was delivered. Neither was there that concert of effort so universal to-day between the churches and temperance societies to rescue the fallen. The whole thing, I repeat, was damaging to Lincoln, and gave rise to the opposition on the part of the churches which confronted him several years afterwards when he became a candidate against the noted Peter Cartwright for Congress. The charge, therefore, that in matters of religion he was a skeptic was not without its supporters, especially where his opponent was himself a preacher. But, nothing daunted, Lincoln kept on and labored zealously in the interest of the temperance move- ment. He spoke often again in Springfield, and also in other places over the country, displaying the same courage and adherence to principle that characterized his every undertaking. Meanwhile, he had one eye open for politics as he moved along. He was growing more self-reliant in the practice of law every day, and felt amply able to take charge of and maintain himself in any case that happened to come into his hands. His pro- pensity for the narration of an apt story was of im- measurable aid to him before a jury, and in cases where the law seemed to lean towards the other side won him many a case. In 1842, Martin Van Buren, who had just left the Presidential chair, made a journey through the West. He was accompanied by his former Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Paulding, THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 263 and in June they reached the village of Rochester, distant from Springfield six miles. It was evening when they arrived, and on account of the muddy roads they decided to go no farther, but to rest there for the night. Word was sent into Springfield, and of course the leading Democrats of the capital hurried out to meet the distinguished visitor. Knowing the accommodations at Rochester were not intended for or suited to the entertainment of an ex- President, they took with them refreshments in quantity and variety, to make up for all deficiencies. Among others, they prevailed on Lincoln, although an ardent and pronounced Whig, to accompany them. They introduced him to the venerable states- man of Kinderhook as a representative lawyer, and a man whose wit was as ready as his store of anec- dotes was exhaustless. How he succeeded in enter- taining the visitor and the company, those who were present have often since testified. Van Buren himself entertained the crowd with reminiscences of politics in New York, going back to the days of Hamilton and Burr, and many of the crowd in turn interested him with graphic descriptions of early life on the western frontier. But they all yielded at last to the piquancy and force of Lincoln's queer stories. "Of these," relates one of the company,* "there was a constant supply, one following another in rapid succession, each more irresistible than its predecessor. The fun continued until after midnight, and until the distinguished traveller insisted that * Jos. Gillespie, MS. letter, September 6, 1866. 264 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. his sides were sore from laughing." The yarns which Lincoln gravely spun out, Van Buren assured the crowd, he never would forget. After April 14, 1841, when Lincoln retired from the partnership with Stuart, who had gone to Con- gress, he had been associated with Stephen T. Logan, a man who had, as he deserved, the reputa- tion of being the best nisi prins lawyer in the State. Judge Logan was a very orderly but somewhat technical lawyer. He had some fondness for poli- tics, and made one race for Congress, but he lacked the elements of a successful politician. He was de- feated, and returned to the law. He was assiduous in study and tireless in search of legal principles. He was industrious and very thrifty, delighted to make and save money, and died a rich man. Lin- coln had none of Logan's qualities. He was any- thing but studious, and had no money sense. He was five years younger, and yet his mind and make- up so impressed Logan that he was invited into the partnership with him. Logan's example had a good effect on Lincoln, and it stimulated him to unusual endeavors. For the first time he realized the effec- tiveness of order and method in work, but his old habits eventually overcame him. He permitted his partner to do all the studying in the preparation of cases, while he himself trusted to his general knowl- edge of the law and the inspiration of the surround- ings to overcome the judge or the jury. Logan was scrupulously exact, and used extraordinary care in the preparation of papers. His words were well chosen, and his style of composition was stately and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 265 formal. This extended even to his letters. This Lincoln lacked in every particular. I have before me a letter written by Lincoln at this time to the proprietors of a wholesale store in Louisville, for whom suit had been brought, in which, after notify- ing the latter of the sale of certain real estate in satisfaction of their judgment, he adds: "As to the real estate we cannot attend to it. We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton, a trustworthy man, and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such business." He gravely signs the firm name, Logan and Lincoln, to this unlawyerlike letter and sends it on its way. Logan never would have written such a letter. He had too much gravity and austere dignity to permit any such looseness of expression in letters to his clients or to anyone else. In 1843, Logan and Lincoln both had their eyes set on the race for Congress. Logan's claim to the honor lay in his age and the services he had ren- dered the Whig party, while Lincoln, overflowing with ambition, lay great stress on his legislative achievements, and demanded it because he had been defeated in the nominating conventions by both Hardin and Baker in the order named. That two such aspiring politicians, each striving to obtain the same prize, should not dwell harmoniously together in the same office is not strange. Indeed, we may reasonably credit the story that they com sidered themselves rivals, and that numerous sacri* monious passages took place between them. I was 266 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. not surprised, therefore, one morning, to see Mr. Lincoln come rushing up into my quarters and with more or less agitation tell me he had determined to sever the partnership with Logan. I confess I was surprised when he invited me to become his part- ner. I was young in the practice and was painfully aware of my want of ability and experience; but when he remarked in his earnest, honest way, "Billy, I can trust you, if you can trust me," I felt relieved, and accepted the generous proposal. It has always been a matter of pride with me that during our long partnership, continuing on until it was dissolved by the bullet of the assassin Booth, we never had any personal controversy or disagree- ment. I never stood in his way for political honors or office, and I believe we understood each other perfectly. In after years, when he became more prominent, and our practice grew to respectable proportions, other ambitious practitioners under- took to supplant me in the partnership. One of the latter, more zealous than wise, charged that I was in a certain way weakening the influence of the firm. I am flattered to know that Lincoln turned on this last named individual with the retort, "I know my own business, I reckon. I know Billy Herndon better than anybody, and even if what you say of him is true I intend to stick by him." Lincoln's effort to obtain the Congressional nom- ination in 1843 brought out several unique and amusing incidents. He and Edward D. Baker were the two aspirants from Sangamon county, but Baker's long residence, extensive acquaintance, and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 267 general popularity were obstacles Lincoln could not overcome ; accordingly, at the last moment, Lincoln reluctantly withdrew from the field. In a letter to his friend Speed, dated March 24, 1843, he describes the situation as follows: "We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday, to ap- point delegates to a district convention ; and Baker beat me, and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made grooms- man to a man that has cut him out, and is marrying his own dear gal." Only a few days before this he had written a friend anent the Congressional matter, "Now if you should hear any one say that Lincoln don't want to go to Congress, I wash you, as a per- sonal friend of mine, would tell him you have reason to believe he is mistaken. The truth is I would like to go very much. Still, circumstances may happen which may prevent my being a candi- date. If there are any who be my friends in such an enterprise, what I now want is that they shall not throw me away just yet."* To another friend in the adjoining county of Menard a few days after the meeting of the Whigs in Sangamon, he ex- plains how Baker defeated him. The entire absence of any feeling of bitterness, or what the politicians call revenge, is the most striking feature of the letter. "It is truly gratify- • Letter to R. S. Thomas, Virginia, 111., Feb. 14, '43, MS. 268 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. ing," he says, "to me to learn that while the peo- ple of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, unedutated, penniless boy, working on a flat-boat at ten dollars per month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristo- cratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbell- ite, and therefore as I suppose, with few excep- tions, got all that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches and some with the Episcopalian churches, and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel. With all these things Baker, of course, had nothing to do ; nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going for him I think that was right enough ; and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax of consider- able per cent, and throughout the religious contro- versy." To a proposition offering to instruct the Menard delegation for him he replies : "You say you shall instruct your delegates for me unless THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 269 I object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it." Baker's friends had used as an argument against Lincoln that he belonged to a proud and aristo- cratic family, referring doubtless to some of the distinguished relatives who were connected with him by marriage. The story reaching Lincoln's ears, he laughed heartily over it one day in a Springfield store and remarked : "That sounds strange to me, for I do not remem- ber of but one who ever came to see me, and while he was in town he was accused of stealing a jew's- harp." :|: In the convention which was held shortly after at the town of Pekin neither Baker nor Lincoln obtained the coveted honor ; but John J. Hardin, of Morgan, destined to lose his life at the head of an Illinois regiment in the Mexican war, was nomi- nated, and in the following August, elected by a good majority. Lincoln bore his defeat manfully. He was no doubt greatly disappointed, but by no means soured. He conceived the strange notion that the publicity given his so-called "aristocratic family distinction" would cost him the friendship of his humbler constituents — his Clary's Grove * Letter, A. T. Ellis, July 16, '66, MS. 2/0 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. friends. He took his friend James Matheney out into the woods with him one day and, calling up the bitter features of the canvass, protested "vehemently and with great emphasis" that he was anything but aristocratic and proud. "Why, Jim," he said, "I am now and always shall be the same Abe Lincoln I was when you first saw me." In the campaign of lSLt Lincoln filled the hon- orable post of Presidential Elector, and he extended the limits of his acquaintance by stumping the State. This was the year the gallant and magnetic Clay went down in defeat. Lincoln, in the latter end of the canvass, crossed over into Indiana and made several speeches. Lie spoke at Rockport and also at Gentryville, where he met the Grigsbys, the Gentrys, and other friends of his boyhood. The result of the election was a severe disappointment to Mr. Lincoln as well as to all other Whigs. No election since the foundation of the Government created more widespread regret than the defeat of Clay by Polk. Men were never before so enlisted in any man's cause, and when the great Whig chief- tain went down his followers fled from the field in utter demoralization. Some doubted the success of popular government, while others, more hopeful still in the face of the general disaster, vowed they would never shave their faces or cut their hair till Henry Clay became President. As late as 1880 I saw one man who had lived up to his insane resolution. One political society organized to aid Clay's elec- tion sent the defeated candidate an address, in which they assured him that, after the smoke of battle THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 271 had cleared away, he would ever be remembered as one "whose name honored defeat and gave it a glory which victory could not have brought." In Lincoln's case his disappointment was no greater than that of any other Whig. Many persons have yielded to the impression that Mr. Lincoln visited Clay at his home in Lexington and felt a personal loss in his defeat, but such is not the case. He took no more gloomy view of the situation than the rest of his party. He had been a leading figure himself in other campaigns, and was fully inured to the chilling blasts of defeat. They may have driven him in, but only for a short time, for he soon evinced a willingness to test the temper of the winds again. No sooner had Baker been elected to Congress in August, 1844, than Lincoln began to manifest a longing for the tempting prize to be contended for in 1846. Hardin and Baker both having been required to content themselves with a single term each, the struggle among Whig aspirants narrowed down to Logan and Lincoln.* The latter's claim * The Whig candidates for Congress in the Springfield district "rotated" in the following order: Baker succeeded Hardin in 1844, Lincoln was elected in 1846, and Logan was nominated but defeated in 1848. Lincoln publicly declined to contest the nomi- nation with Baker in 1844 ; Hardin did the same for Lincoln in 1846 — although both seem to have acted reluctantly; and Lin- coln refused to run against Logan in 1848. Many persons in- sist that an agreement among these four conspicuous Whig leaders to content themselves with one term each actually ex- isted. There is, however, no proof of any bargain, although there seems to have been a tacit understanding of the kind — maintained probably to keep other and less tractable candidates out of the field. 2*72 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. seemed to find such favorable lodgment with the party workers, and his popularity seemed so appar- ent, that Logan soon realized his own want of strength and abandoned the field to his late law partner. The convention which nominated Lincoln met at Petersburg May 1, 1846. Hardin, who, in violation of what was then regarded as precedent, had been seeking the nomination, had courteously withdrawn. Logan, ambitious to secure the honor next time for himself, with apparent generosity presented Lincoln's name to the convention, and there being no other candidate he was chosen unani- mously. The reader need not be told whom the Democrats placed in the field against him. It was Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist divine and circuit rider. An energetic canvass of three months followed, during which Lincoln kept his forces well in hand. Ke was active and alert, speaking every- where, and abandoning his share of business in the law office entirely. He had a formidable competi- tor in Cartwright, who not only had an extensive following by reason of his church influence, but rallied many more supporters around his standard by his pronounced Jacksonian attitude. He had come into Illinois with the early immigrants from Kentucky and Tennessee, and had at one time or another preached to almost every Methodist con- gregation between Springfield and Cairo. He had extensive family connections all over the district, was almost twenty-five years older than Lincoln, and in every respect a dangerous antagonist. Another thing which operated much to Lincoln's THE LIFE OF LIXCOLX. 273 disadvantage was the report circulated by Cart- wright's friends with respect to Lincoln's religious views. He was charged with the grave offence of infidelity, and sentiments which he was reported to have expressed with reference to the inspiration of the Bible were given the campaign varnish and passed from hand to hand. His slighting allusion expressed in the address at the Presbyterian Church before the Washington Temperance Society, Feb- ruary 2d, four years before, to the insincerity of the Christian people was not forgotten. It, too, played its part ; but all these opposing circumstances were of no avail. Cartwright was personally very popu- lar, but it was plain the people of the Springfield district wanted no preacher to represent them in Congress. They believed in an absolute separation of Church and State. The election, therefore, of such a man as Cartwright would not, to their way of thinking, tend to promote such a result. I was enthusiastic and active in Lincoln's interest myself. The very thought of my associate's becoming a mem- ber of Congress was a great stimulus to my self- importance. Many other friends in and around Springfield were equally as vigilant, and, in the language of another, "long before the contest closed we snuffed approaching victory in the air." Our laborious efforts met with a suitable reward. Lin- coln was elected by a majority of 1511 in the dis- trict, a larger vote than Clay's two years before, which was only 914. In Sangamon county his majority was 690, and exceeded that of any of his predecessors on the Whig ticket, commencing with 274 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. Stuart in 1834 and continuing on down to the days of Yates in 1852. Before Lincoln's departure for Washington to enter on his duties as a member of Congress, the Mexican war had begun. The volunteers had gone forward, and at the head of the regiments from Illinois some of the bravest men and the best legal talent in Springfield 4iad marched. Hardin, Baker, Bissell, and even the dramatic Shields had enlisted. The issues of the war and the manner of its prose- cution were in every man's mouth. Naturally, therefore, a Congressman-elect would be expected to publish his views and define his position early in the day. Although, in common with the Whig party, opposing the declaration of war, Lincoln, now that hostilities had commenced, urges a vigorous prosecution. He admonished us all to permit our Government to suffer no dishonor, and to stand by the flag till peace came and came honorably to us. He declared these sentiments in a speech at a public meeting in Springfield, May 29, 1847. In the following December he took his seat in Congress. He was the only Whig from Illinois. His col- leagues in the Illinois delegation were John A. McClernand, O. B. Ficklin, William A. Richardson, Thomas J. Turner, Robert Smith, and John Went- worth. In the Senate Douglas had made his appearance for the first time. The Little Giant is always in sight ! Robert C. Winthrop, of Massa- chusetts, was chosen Speaker. John Quincy Adams, Horace Mann, Caleb Smith, Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 275 Andrew Johnson were important members of the House. With many of these the newly elected member from Illinois was destined to sustain another, and far different relation. On the 5th of December, the day before the House organized, Lincoln wrote me a letter about our fee in a law-suit and reported the result of the Whig caucus the night before. On the 13th, he wrote again: ''Dear William: — Your letter, advising me of the receipt of our fee in the bank case, is just received, and I don't expect to hear another as good a piece of news from Springfield while I am away." He then directed me from the proceeds of this fee to pay a debt at the bank, and out of the balance left to settle sundry dry-goods and grocery bills. The modest tone of the last paragraph is its most striking feature. "As you are all so anxious for me to distinguish myself," he said, "I have concluded to do so before long." January 8 he writes: "As to speech-making, by way of get- ting the hang of the House, I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking here and else- where about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it." Meanwhile, in recognition of the assurances I had sent him from friends who desired to approve his course by a re-election, he says: "It is very pleasant to me to learn from you that there are some who desire that I should be re-elected. I 2/6 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. most heartily thank them for the kind partiality, and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas, that, 'personally, I would not object' to a re-election, although I thought at the time, and still think, it would be quite as well for me to return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration that I would not be a candi- date again, more from a wish to deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself, so that if it should happen that nobody else wishes to be elected I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to enter me, is what my word and honor forbid." His announcement of a willingness to accept a re-election if tendered him by the people was altogether unnecessary, for within a few days after this letter was written his constituents began to manifest symptoms of grave disapproval of his course on the Mexican war question. His position on this subject was evidenced by certain resolutions offered by him in the House three weeks before. These latter were called the "Spot Resolutions," and they and the speech which followed on the 12th of January in support of them not only sealed Lincoln's doom as a Congressman, but in my opinion, lost the district to the Whigs in 1848, when Judge Logan had succeeded at last in obtain- ing the nomination. Although differing with the President as to the THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 277 justice or even propriety of a war with Mexico, Lincoln was not unwilling to vote, and with the majority of his party did vote, the supplies neces- sary to carry it on. He did this, however, with great reluctance, protesting all the while that "the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President." The "Spot Resolutions," which served as a text for his speech on the 12th of January, and which caused such unwonted annoy- ance in the ranks of his constituents, were a series following a preamble loaded with quotations from the President's messages. These resolutions re- quested the President to inform the House : "First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed as in his messages declared was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico. Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States army." There were eight of these interrogatories, but it is only necessary to reproduce the three which fore- shadow the position Lincoln was then intending to assume. On the 12th of January, as before stated, he followed them up with a carefully prepared and well arranged speech, in which he made a severe arraignment of President Polk and justified the per- tinence and propriety of the inquiries he had a few 278 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. days before addressed to him. The speech is too long for insertion here. It was constructed much after the manner of a legal argument. Reviewing the evidence furnished by the President in his various messages, he undertook to "smoke him out" with this : "Let the President answer the interrogatories I proposed, as before mentioned, or other similar ones. Let him answer fully, fairly, candidly. Let him answer with facts, not with arguments. Let him ' remember, he sits where Washington sat ; and so remembering, let him answer as Washington would answer. As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion, no equivocation. And if, so answering, he can show the soil was ours where the first blood of the war was shed ; that it was not within an inhabited country, or if within such; that the inhabitants had submitted themselves to the civil authority of Texas or of the United States; and that the same is true of the site of Fort Brown, then I am with him for his justification . . . But if he cannot or will not do this — if, on any pretence, or no pretence, he shall refuse or omit it — then I shall be fully convinced of what I more than suspect already — that he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong; that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him ; that he ordered General Taylor into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement pur- posely to bring on a war ; that, originally having some strong motive — which I will not now stop to give my opinion concerning — to involve the coun- THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 279 tries in a war., and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding bright- ness of military glory, — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye that charms to destroy, — he plunged into it, and has swept on and on, till disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself he knows not where. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant that he may be able to show that there is not something about his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity." This speech, however clear may have been its reasoning, however rich in illustration, in restrained and burning earnestness, yet was unsuccessful in "smoking out" the President. He remained within the of- ficial seclusion his position gave him, and declined to answer. In fact it is doubtless true that Lincoln anticipated no response, but simply took that means of defining clearly his own position. On the 19th inst., having occasion to write me with reference to a note with which one of our clients, one Louis Candler, had been "annoying" him, "not the least of which annoyance," he complains, "is his cursed unreadable and ungodly handwrit- ing," he adds a line, in which with noticeable mod- esty he informs me : "I have made a speech, a copy of which I send you by mail." He doubtless felt he was taking rather advanced and perhaps ques- tionable ground. And so he was. for very soon after, murmurs of dissatisfaction began to run through the Whig ranks. I did not, as some of Lincoln's biographers would have their readers be- 280 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. lieve, ■ inaugurate this feeling of dissatisfaction. On the contrary, as the law partner of the Congress- man, and as his ardent admirer, I discouraged the •defection all I could. Still, when I listened to the comments of his friends everywhere after the de- livery of his speech, I felt that he had made a mis- take. I therefore wrote him to that effect, at the same time giving him my own views, which I knew were in full accord with the views of his Whig con- stituents. My argument in substance was : That the President of the United States is Commander- in-Chief of the Army and Navy; that as such com- mander it was his duty, in the absence of Congress, if the country was about to be invaded and armies were organized in Mexico for that purpose, to go 1 — if necessary — into the very heart of Mexico and prevent the invasion. I argued further that it would be a crime in the Executive to let the coun- try be invaded in the least degree. The action of the President was a necessity, and under a simi- lar necessity years afterward Mr. Lincoln himself emancipated the slaves, although he had no special power under the Constitution to do so. In later days, in what is called the Hodges letter, concerning the freedom of the slaves, he used this language : "I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable." Briefly stated, that was the strain of my argument. My judgment was formed on the law of nations and of war. If the facts were as I believed them, and my premises correct, then I assumed that the President's acts became lawful by becoming indis- pensable. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 281 February 1 he wrote me, ''Dear William : You fear that you and I disagree about the war. I re- gret this, not because of any fear we shall remain disagreed after you have read this letter, but because if you misunderstand I fear other good friends may also." Speaking of his vote in favor of the amendment to the supply bill proposed by George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, he continues : "That vote affirms that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the Presi- dent ; and I will stake my life that if you had been in my place you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted what you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. Would you have gone out of the House, — skulked the vote ? I expect not. If you had skulked one vote you would have had to skulk many more before the close of the session. Richardson's resolutions, intro- duced before I made any move or gave any vote upon the subject, make the direct question of the justice of the war ; so that no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to speak; and your only alternative is to tell the truth or tell a lie. I can- not doubt which you would do . . . I do not mean this letter for the public, but for you. Before it reaches you you will have seen and read my pam- phlet speech and perhaps have been scared anew by it. After you get over your scare read it over again, sentence by sentence, and tell me honestly what you think of it. I condensed all I could for fear of being cut off by the hour rule; and when I got through I had spoken but forty-five minutes. "Yours forever, "A. Lincoln." 282 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. I digress from the Mexican war subject long enough to insert, because in the order of time it belongs here, a characteristic letter which he wrote me regarding a man who was destined at a later day to play a far different role in the national drama. Here it is : "Washington, Feb. 2, 1848. "Dear William : "I just take up my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My old, withered, dry eyes are full of tears yet. If he writes it out anything like he delivered it our peo- ple shall see a good many copies of it. "Yours truly, "A. Lincoln." To Wm, H. Herndon, Esq. February 15 he wrote me again in criticism of the President's invasion of foreign soil. He still be- lieved the Executive had exceeded the limit of his authority. "The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress," he insists, "was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the peo- ple was the object. This, our convention under- stood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions ; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 283 your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood." In June the Whigs met in national convention at Philadelphia to nominate a candidate for President. Lincoln attended as a delegate. He advocated the nomination of Taylor because of his belief that he could be elected, and was correspondingly averse to Clay because of the latter's signal defeat in 1844. In a letter from Washington a few days after the convention he predicts the election of "Old Rough." He says : "In my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming glorious triumph. One un- mistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with us — Barn-burners, Native Americans, Tyler- men, disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what not . . . Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to them the gallows of Haman, which they built for us and on which they are doomed to be hanged them- selves." Meanwhile, in spite of the hopeful view Lincoln seemed to take of the prospect, things in his own district were in exceedingly bad repair. I could not refrain from apprising him of the extensive defections from the party ranks, and the injury his course was doing him. My object in thus writing to him was not to threaten him. Lincoln was not a man who could be successfully threatened ; one had to approach him from a different direction. I warned him of public disappointment over his course, and I earnestly desired to prevent him from 284 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. committing what I believed to be political suicide. June 22d he answered a letter I had written him on the 15th. He had just returned from a Whig caucus held in relation to the coming Presidential election. "The whole field of the nation was scanned ; all is high hope and confidence," he said exultingly. "Illinois is expected to better her condition in this race. Under these circumstances judge how heart- rending it was to come to my room and find and read your discouraging letter of the 15th." But still he does not despair. "Now, as to the young men," he says, "you must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young men get together and form a Rough and Ready club, and have regular meetings and speeches. Take in everybody that you can get ... As you go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, whether just of age or a little under age. Let every one play the part he can play best — some speak, some sing, and all halloo. Your meetings will be of evenings; the older men and the women will go to hear you, so that it will not only contribute to the election of 'Old Zack,' but will be an interesting pastime and improving to the faculties of all engaged." He was evidently endeavoring through me to rouse up all the enthusiasm among the youth of Springfield pos- sible under the circumstances. But I was disposed to take a dispirited view of the situation, and there- fore was not easily warmed up. I felt at this time, THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 285 somewhat in advance of its occurrence, the death throes of the Whig party. I did not conceal my suspicions, and one of the Springfield papers gave my sentiments liberal quotation in its columns. I felt gloomy over the prospect, and cut out these newspaper slips and sent them to Lincoln. Accom panying these I wrote him a letter equally melan- choly in tone, in which among other things I reflected severely on the stubbornness and bad judgment of the old fossils in the party, who were constantly holding the young men back. This brought from him a letter, July 10, 1848, which is so clearly Lincolnian and so full of plain philosophy, that I copy it in full. Not the least singular of all is his illusion to himself as an old man, although he had scarcely passed his thirty-ninth year. "Washington, July 10, 1848. "Dear William : "Your letter covering the newspaper slips was received last night. The subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me, and I can- not but think there is some mistake in your im- pression of the motives of the old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; and I declare on my veracity, which I think is good with you, that noth- ing could afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends at home were doing battle in the contest and endearing themselves to the people and taking a stand far above any I have ever been able to reach in their admiration. I cannot conceive that other men feel differently. Of course I cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know 286 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. what to say. The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspect- ing that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may some- times be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it. "Now, in what I have said I am sure you will sus- pect nothing but sincere friendship. I would save you from a fatal error. You have been a laborious, studious young man. You are far better informed on almost all subjects than I ever have been. You cannot fail in any laudable object unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed. I have some the advantage of you in the world's experience merely by being older; and it is this that induces me to advise. "Your friend, as ever, "A. Lincoln." Before the close of the Congressional session he made two more speeches. One of these, which he hastened to send home in pamphlet form, and which he supposes "nobody will read," was devoted to the familiar subject of internal improvements, and deserves only passing mention. The other, deliv- ered on the 27th of July, was in its way a master- piece ; and it is no stretch of the truth to say that while intended simply as a campaign document and devoid of any effort at classic orator} 7 , it was, per- haps, one of the best speeches of the session. It is too extended for insertion here without abridgment; THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 287 but one who reads it will lay it clown convinced that Lincoln's ascendency for a quarter of a century among the political spirits in Illinois was by no means an accident; neither will the reader wonder that Douglas, with all his forensic ability, averted, as long as he could, a contest with a man whose plain, analytical reasoning was not less potent than his mingled drollery and caricature were effective. The speech in the main is an arraignment of General Cass, the Democratic candidate for President, who had already achieved great renown in the political world, principally on account of his career as a soldier in the war of 1812, and is a triumphant vin- dication of his Whig opponent, General Taylor, who seemed to have had a less extensive knowledge of civil than of military affairs, and was discreetly silent about both. Lincoln caricatured the military pre- tentions of the Democratic candidate in picturesque style. This latter section of the speech has hereto- fore been omitted by most of Mr. Lincoln's biog- raphers because of its glaring inappropriateness as a Congressional effort. I have always failed to see wherein its comparison with scores of others deliv- ered in the halls of Congress since that time could in any way detract from the fame of Mr. Lincoln, and I therefore reproduce it here: "But the gentlemen from Georgia [Mr. Iverson] further says, we have deserted all our principles, and taken shelter under General Taylor's military coat- tail ; and he seems to think this is exceedingly de- grading. Well, as his faith is, so be it unto him. But can he remember no other military coat-tail, 28S THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. under which a certain other party have been shelter- ing for near a quarter of a century? Has he no ac- quaintance with the ample military coat-tail of Gen- eral Jackson? Does he not know that his own party have run the last five Presidential races under that coat-tail? and that they are now running the sixth under the same cover? Yes, sir, that coat-tail was used not only for General Jackson himself, but has been clung to with the grip of death by every Demo- cratic candidate since. You have never ventured, and dare not now venture from under it. Your cam- paign papers have constantly been 'Old Hickory's', with rude likeness of the old general upon them ; hickory poles and hickory brooms your never-ending emblems. Mr. Polk himself was 'Young Hickory,' 'Little Hickory,' or something so ; and even now your campaign paper here is proclaiming that Cass and Butler are of the 'Hickory stripe.' No, sir, you dare not give it up. Like a horde of hungry ticks, you have stuck to the tail of the Hermitage lion to the end of his life ; and you are still sticking to it, and drawing a loathsome sustenance from it, after he is dead. A fellow once advertised that he had made a discovery by which he could make a new man out of an old one and have enough of the stuff left to make a little yellow dog. Just such a dis- covery has General Jackson's popularity been to you. You not only twice made Presidents of him out of it, but you have enough of the stuff left to make Presidents of several comparatively small men since; and it is your chief reliance now to make still another. "Mr. Speaker, old horses and military coat-tails, or tails of any sort, are not figures of speech such as I would be the first to introduce into discussion here; but as the gentleman from Georgia has thought fit to introduce them, he and you are wel- come to all you have made or can make by them. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 289 If you have any more old horses, trot them out; any more tails, just cock them and come at us. I repeat, I would not introduce this mode of discus- sion here; but I wish gentlemen on the other side to understand that the use of degrading figures is a game at which they may find themselves unable to take all the winnings. [A voice 'No, we give it up'] Aye! you give it up, and well you may; but for a very different reason from that which you would have us understand. The point — the power t0 hurt— of all figures consists in the truthfulness of their application; and, understanding this, you may well give it up. They are weapons which hit you, but miss us. "But in my hurry I was very near closing on this subject of military' tails before I was done with it. There is one entire article of the sort I have not discussed yet ; I mean the military tail you Demo- crats are now engaged in dovetailing on to the great Michigander. Yes, sir, all his biographers (and they are legion) have him in hand, tying him to a military tail, like so many mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans. True, the material is very limited, but they are at it might and main. He invaded Canada without resistance, and he outvaded it without pursuit. As he did both under orders, I suppose there was to him neither credit nor discredit; but they are made to constitute a large part of the tail. He was not at Hull's surrender, but he was close by; he was vol- unteer aid to General Harrison on the day of the battle of the Thames; and as you said in 1840 Harrison was picking whortleberries two miles off while the battle was fought, I suppose it is a just con- clusion with you to say Cass was aiding Harrison to pick whortleberries. This is about all, except the mooted question of the broken sword. Some au- thors say he broke it; some say he threw it away; 290 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. and some others, who ought to know, say nothing about it. Perhaps it would be a fair historical com- promise to say if he did not break it, he did not do anything else with it. "By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war, I fought, bled, and came away. Speak- ing of General Cass's career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, he broke it in desparation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of rne picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed .him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitos ; and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and, thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me as they have of General Cass by attempting to write me into a military hero." After the adjournment of Congress on the 14,th of August, Lincoln went through New York and some of the New England States making a number of speeches for Taylor, none of which, owing to the limited facilities attending newspaper reporting in that day, have been preserved. He returned to Illinois before the close of the canvass and con- THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 291 tinued his efforts on the stump till the election. At the second session of Congress, which began in December, he was less conspicuous than before. The few weeks spent with his constituents had perhaps taught him that in order to succeed as a Congress- man it is not always the most politic thing to tell the truth because it is the truth, or to do right because it is right. With the opening of Congress, by virtue of the election of Taylor, the Whigs obtained the ascendency in the control of governmental machin- ery. He attended to the duties of the Congres- sional office diligently and with becoming modesty. He answered the letters of his constituents, sent them their public documents, and looked after their pension claims. His only public act of any moment was a bill looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia. He inter- ested Joshua R. Giddings and others of equally as pronounced anti-slavery views in the subject, but his bill eventually found a lodgment on "the table/' where it was carefully but promptly laid by a vote of the House. Meanwhile, being chargeable with the distribu- tion of official patronage, he began to flounder about in explanation of his action in a sea of seem- ingly endless perplexities. His recommendation of the appointment of T. R. King to be Regis- ter or Receiver of the Land Office had pro- duced no little discord among the other aspirants for the place. He wrote to a friend who endorsed and urged the appointment, "either to admit it is wrong, or come forward and sustain him." He then 292 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. transmits to this same friend a scrap of paper — pro- bably a few lines approving the selection of King — which is to be copied in the friend's own handwrit- ing. "Get everybody," he insists, "(not three or four, but three or four hundred) to sign it, and then send to me. Also have six, eight, or ten of our best known Whig friends to write me additional letters, stating the truth in this matter as they un- derstood it. Don't neglect or delay in the matter. I understand," he continues, "information of an in- dictment having been found against him three years ago for gaming or keeping a. gaming house has been sent to the Department." He then closes with the comforting assurance : "I shall try to take care of it at the Department till your action can be had and forwarded on." And still people insist that Mr. Lincoln was such a guileless man and so free from the politician's sagacity ! In June I wrote him regarding the case of one Walter Davis, who was soured and disappointed because Lincoln had overlooked him in his recom- mendation for the Springfield post-office. "There must be some mistake," he responds on the 5th, "about Walter Davis saying I promised him the post-office. I did not so promise him. I did tell him that if the distribution of the offices should fall into my hands he should have something; and if I shall be convinced he has said any more than this I shall be disappointed. I said this much to him because, as I understand, he is of good character, is one of the young men, is of the mechanics, is always faithful and never troublesome, a Whig, and is poor, THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 293 with the support of a widow-mother thrown almost exclusively on him by the death of his brother. If these are wrong reasons then I have been wrong ; but I have certainly not been selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he was against me and for Baker." Judge Logan's defeat in 1848 left Lincoln still in a measure in charge of the patronage in his dis- trict. After his term in Congress expired the "wriggle and struggle" for office continued; and he was often appealed to for his influence in obtain- ing, as he termed it, "a way to live without work." Occasionally, when hard pressed, he retorted with bitter sarcasm. I append a letter written in this vein to a gentleman still living in central Illinois, who, I suppose, would prefer that his name should be withheld: "Springfield, Dec. 15, 1849. " Esq. "Dear Sir: "On my return from Kentucky I found your let- ter of the 7th of November, and have delayed answering it till now for the reason I now briefly state. From the beginning of our acquaintance I had felt the greatest kindness for you and had sup- posed it was reciprocated on your part. Last sum- mer, under circumstances which I mentioned to you, I was painfully constrained to withhold a recom- mendation which you desired, and shortly after- wards I learned, in such a way as to believe it, that you were indulging in open abuse of me. Of course my feelings were wounded. On receiving your last letter the question occurred whether you were attempting to use me at the same time you would 294 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. injure me, or whether you might not have been misrepresented to me. If the former, I ought not to answer you; if the latter, I ought, and so I have remained in suspense. I now enclose you the let- ter, which you may use if you see fit. "Yours, etc. "A. Lincoln/' No doubt the man, when Lincoln declined at first to recommend him, did resort to more or less abuse. That would have been natural, especially with an unsuccessful and disappointed office-seeker. I am inclined to the opinion, and a careful reading of the letter will warrant it, that Lincoln believed him guilty. If the recommendation which Lincoln, after so much reluctance, gave was ever used to further the applicant's cause I do not know it. With the close of Lincoln's congressional career he drops out of sight as a political factor, and for the next few years we take him up in another capac- ity. He did not solicit or contend for a renomina- tion to Congress, and such was the unfortunate result of his position on public questions that it is doubtful if he could have succeeded had he done so. CHAPTER X. After the wedding of Lincoln and Miss Todd at the Edwards mansion we hear but little of them as a married couple till the spring of 1843, when the husband writes to his friend Speed, who had been joined to his "black-eyed Fanny" a little over a year, with regard to his life as a married man. "Are you possessing houses and lands," he writes, "and oxen and asses and men-servants and maid-servants, and begetting sons and daughters? We are not keep- ing house, but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room (the same Dr. Wallace occupied there) and boarding only costs us four dollars a week." Gaining a livelihood was slow and discour- aging business with him, for we find him in another letter apologizing for his failure to visit Kentucky, "because," he says, "I am so poor and make so lit- tle headway in the world that I drop back in a month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sow- ing." But by dint of untiring efforts and the recog- nition of influential friends he managed through rare frugality to move along. In his struggles, both in the law and for political advancement, his wife shared in his sacrifices. She was a plucky little woman, and in fact endowed with a more restless 295 296 THE L1FE 0F LINCOLN. ambition than he. She was gifted with a rare insight into the motives that actuate mankind, and there is no doubt that much of Lincoln's success was in a measure attributable to her acuteness and the stimulus of her influence. His election to Con- gress within four years after their marriage afforded her extreme gratification. She loved power and prominence, and when occasionally she came down to our office, it seemed to me then that she was inordinately proud of her tall and ungainly husband. She saw in him bright prospects ahead, and his every move was watched by her with the closest interest. If to other persons he seemed homely, to her he was the embodiment of noble manhood, and each succeeding day impressed upon her the wisdom of her choice of Lincoln over Douglas — if in reality she ever seriously accepted the latter's attentions. "Mr. Lincoln may not be as handsome a figure," she said one day in the office during her husband's absence, when the conversation turned on Douglas, "but the people are perhaps not aware that his heart is as large as his arms are long." Mrs. Lincoln accompanied her husband to Wash- ington and remained during one session of Congress. While there they boarded at the same house with Joshua R. Giddings, and when in 1856 the valiant old Abolitionist came to take part in the canvass in Illinois, he early sought out Lincoln, with whom he had been so favorably impressed several years before. On his way home from Congress Lincoln came by way of Niagara Falls and down Lake Erie to Toledo or Detroit. It happened that, some time THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 297 after, I went to New York and also returned by way of Niagara Falls. In the office, a few days after my return, I was endeavoring to entertain my partner with an account of my trip, and among other things described the Falls. In the attempt I indulged in a good deal of imagery. As I warmed up with the subject my descriptive powers expanded accord- ingly. The mad rush of water, the roar, the rapids, and the rainbow furnished me with an abundance of material for a stirring and impressive picture. The recollection of the gigantic and awe-inspiring scene stimulated my exuberant powers to the high- est pitch. After well-nigh exhausting myself in the effort I turned to Lincoln for his opinion. "What," I inquired, "made the deepest impression on you when you stood in the presence of the great natural wonder? I shall never forget his answer, because it in a very characteristic way illustrates how he looked at everything. "The thing that struck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls," he responded, "was, where in the world did all that water come from?" He had no eye for the magnificence and grandeur of the scene, for the rapids, the mist, the angry waters, and the roar of the whirlpool, but his mind, working in its accustomed channel, heedless of beauty or awe, followed irresistibly back to the first cause. It was in this light he viewed every question. However great the verbal foliage that concealed the nakedness of a good idea Lincoln stripped it all down till he could see clear the way between cause and effect. If there was any secret in his power this surely was it. 298 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. After seeing Niagara Falls he continued his jour- ney homeward. At some point on the way, the vessel on which he had taken passage stranded on a sand bar. The captain ordered the hands to collect all the loose planks, empty barrels and boxes and force them under the sides of the boat. These empty casks were used to buoy it up. After for- cing enough of them under the vessel she lifted gradually and at last swung clear of the opposing sand bar. Lincoln had watched this operation very intently. It no doubt carried him back to the days of his navigation on the turbulent Sangamon, when he and John Hanks had rendered similar ser- vice at New Salem dam to their employer, the volatile Offut. Continual thinking on the subject of lifting vessels over sand bars and other obstruc- tions in the water suggested to him the idea of inventing an apparatus for the purpose. Using the principle involved in the operation he had just witnessed, his plan was to attach a kind of bellows on each side of the hull of the craft just below the water line, and, by an odd system of ropes and pul- leys, whenever the keel grated on the sand these bellows were to be filled with air, and thus buoyed up, the vessel was expected to float clear of the shoal. On reaching home he at once set to work to demonstrate the feasibility of his plan. Walter Davis, a mechanic having a shop near our office, granted him the use of this tools, and likewise assisted him in making the model of a miniature vessel with the arrangement as above described. Lincoln man- ifested ardent interest in it. Occasionally he would THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 299 bring the model in the office, and while whittling on it would descant on its merits and the revolution it was destined to work in steamboat navigation. Although I regarded the thing as impracticable I said nothing, probably out of respect for Lincoln's well-known reputation as a boatman. The model was sent or taken by him to Washington, where a patent was issued, but the invention was never applied to any vessel, so far as I ever learned, and the threatened revolution in steamboat architecture and navigation never came to pass. The model still reposes in undisturbed slumber on the shelves in the Patent Office, and is the only evidence now existing of Lincoln's success as an inventor.* Shortly before the close of his term in Congress he appears in a new role. Having failed of a re- election he became an applicant for the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office. He had been urged to this step by many of his Whig friends in Illinois, but he was so hedged about with other * Following: is a copy of Lincoln's application for the patent on his "Improved Method of Lifting Vessels Over Shoals": "What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel with the main shaft or shafts by means of the sliding: spars, which pass down through the buoy- ant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in such a manner that by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction the buoy- ant chambers will be forced downwards into the water, and at the same time expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury. "A. Lincoln/' 300 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. aspirants from his own State that he soon lost all heart in the contest. He was too scrupulous, and lacked too much the essentials of self-confidence and persistence, to be a successful suitor for office. In a letter to Joshua Speed, who had written him of a favorable reference to him by Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky,* he says, February 20, 1849, "I am flattered to learn that Mr. Crittenden has any recol- lection of me which is not unfavorable ; and for the manifestation of your kindness towards me I sin- cerely thank you. Still, there is nothing about me to authorize me to think of a first-class office, and a second-class one would not compensate me for being sneered at by others who want it for themselves. I believe that, so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned, I could have the General Land Office almost by common consent ; but then Sweet and Dav. Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is worse, while I think I could easily take it myself I fear I shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois. The reason is that McGaughey, an Indiana ex-member of Congress, is here after it, and being personally known he will be hard to beat by any one who is not." But, as the sequel proved, there was no need to fear the ♦Lincoln had asked Speed to see Crittenden (then Governor of Kentucky) and secure from the latter a recommendation for Baker, who wanted a first-class foreign mission. Crittenden did not approve of Baker, but suggested that he would favor Lin- coln, whom he regarded as a rising man. Speed suggested to Lincoln to apply for the place himself. "I have pledged myself to Baker," he answered, "and cannot under any circumstances consent to the use of my name so long as he is urged for the same place." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 39 ] Hoosier stateman, for although he had the endorse- ment of General Scott and others of equal influence, yet he was left far behind in the race, and along with him Lincoln, Morrison, Browning, and Edwards. A dark horse in the person of Justin Butterfield sprang into view, and with surprising facility cap- tured the tempting prize. This latter and successful aspirant was a lawyer of rather extensive practice and reputation in Chicago. He was shrewd, adroit, and gifted with a knowledge of what politicians would call good management — a quality or charac- teristic in which Lincoln was strikingly deficient. He had endorsed the Mexican war, but, strangely enough, had lost none of his prestige with the Whigs on that account.* The close of Congress and the inauguration of Taylor were the signal for Lincoln's departure from Washington. He left with the comforting assur- * The following letter by Butterfield's daughter is not with- out interest: Chicago, Oct. 12th, 1888. "Mr. Jesse W. Weik. "Dear Sir: "My father was born in Keene, N. H.. in 1790. entered Wil- liams College, 1807, and removed to Chicago in 1835. After the re-accession of the Whigs to power he was on the 21st of June in 184 9 appointed Commissioner of the Land Office by President Taylor. A competitor for the position at that time was Abra- ham Lincoln, who was beaten, it was said, by 'the superior dis- patch of Butterfield in reaching Washington by the Northern route,' but more correctly by the paramount influence of his friend Daniel Webster. "He held the position of Land Commissioner until disabled by paralysis in 1852. After lingering for three years in a dis- abled and enfeebled condition, he died at his home in Chicago, October 23d, 1855, in his sixty-third year. "Very respectfully, "Elizabeth Sawyer." 302 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. ance that as an office-seeker he was by no means a success. Besides his lack of persistence, he had an unconscious feeling of superiority and pride that admitted of no such flexibility of opinion as the professional suitor for office must have, in order to succeed. He remained but a few days at his home in Illinois, however, before he again set out for Washington. The administration of President Taylor feeling that some reward was due Lincoln for his heroic efforts on the stump and elsewhere in behalf of the Whig party and its measures, had offered him the office of either Governor or Secre- tary of Oregon, and with the view of considering this and other offers he returned to Washington. Lincoln used to relate of this last-named journey an amusing incident illustrating Kentucky hospi- tality. He set out from Ransdell's tavern in Springfield, early in the morning. The only other passenger in the stage for a good portion of the distance was a Kentuckian, on his way home from Missouri. The latter, painfully impressed no doubt with Lincoln's gravity and melancholy, undertook to relieve the general monotony of the ride by offering him a chew of tobacco. With a plain "No, sir, thank you; I never chew," Lincoln declined, and a long period of silence followed. Later in the day the stranger, pulling from his pocket a leather-covered case, offered Lincoln a cigar, which he also politely declined on the ground that he never smoked. Finally, as they neared the station where horses were to be changed, the Kentuckian, pouring out a cup of brandy from a flask which had THE LIFE OF L1KC0LX. 303 lain concealed in his satchel, offered it to Lincoln with the remark, "Well, stranger, seeing you don't smoke or chew, perhaps you'll take a little of this French brandy. It's a prime article and a good appetizer besides." His tall and uncommunicative companion declined this last and best evidence of Kentucky hospitality on the same ground as the tobacco. When they separated that afternoon, the Kentuckian, transferring to another stage, bound for Louisville, shook Lincoln warmly by the hand. "See here, stranger," he said, good-humoredly, "you're a clever, but strange companion. I may never see you again, and I don't want to offend you, but I want to say this : my experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has d — d few virtues. Good-day." Lincoln enjoyed this reminiscence of the journey, and took great pleas- ure in relating it. During this same journey oc- curred an incident for which Thomas H. Nelson, of Terre Haute, Indiana, who was appointed Minister to Chili by Lincoln, when he was President, is authority. "In the spring of 1849," relates Nel- son, "Judge Abram Hammond, who was after- wards Governor of Indiana, and I arranged to go from Terre Haute to Indianapolis in the stage coach. An entire day was usually consumed in the journey. By daybreak the stage had arrived from the West, and as we stepped in we discovered that the entire back seat was occupied by a long, lank individual, whose head seemed to protrude from one end of the coach and his feet from the other. He was the sole occupant, and was sleeping 304 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. soundly. Hammond slapped him familiarly on the shoulder, and asked him if he had chartered the stage for the day. The stranger, now wide awake, responded, 'Certainly not,' and at once took the front seat, politely surrendering to us the place of honor and comfort. We took in our travelling companion at a glance. A queer, odd-looking fel- low he was, dressed in a well-worn and ill-fitting suit of bombazine, without vest or cravat, and a twenty-five-cent palm hat on the back of his head. His very prominent features in repose seemed dull and expressionless. Regarding him as a good sub- ject for merriment we perpetrated several jokes. He took them all with the utmost innocence and good-nature, and joined in the laugh, although at his own expense. At noon we stopped at a way- side hostelry for dinner. We invited him to eat with us, and he approached the table as if he con- sidered it a great honor. He sat with about half his person on a small chair, and held his hat under his arm during the meal. Resuming our journey after dinner, conversation drifted into a discussion of the comet, a subject that was then agitating the scientific world, in which the stranger took the deepest interest. He made many startling suggestions and asked many questions. We amazed him with words of learned length and thundering sound. After an astounding display of wordy pyrotechnics the dazed and bewildered stranger asked : 'What is going to be the up- shot of this comet business?' I replied that I was not certain, in fact I differed from most scien- THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. T>OS tists and philosophers, and was inclined to the opinion that the world would follow the darned thing off! Late in the evening we reached Indian- apolis, and hurried to Browning's hotel, losing sight of the stranger altogether. We retired to our room to brush and wash away the dust of the journey. In a few minutes I descended to the portico, and there descried our long, gloomy fellow- traveller in the center of an admiring group of lawyers, among whom were Judges McLean and Huntington, Edward Hannigan, Albert S. White, and Richard W. Thompson, who seemed to be amused and interested in a story he was telling. I enquired of Browning, the landlord, who he was. "Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, a member of Con- gress," was the response. I was thunderstruck at the announcement. I hastened upstairs and told Hammond the startling news, and together we emerged from the hotel by a back door and went down an alley to another house, thus avoiding fur- ther contact with our now distinguished fellow- traveller. Curiously enough, years after this, Ham- mond had vacated the office of Governor of Indi- ana a few days before Lincoln arrived in Indianap- olis, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President. I had many opportunities after the stage ride to cultivate Mr. Lincoln's acquaintance, and was a zealous advocate of his nomination and election to the Presidency. Before leaving his home for Washington, Mr. Lincoln caused John P. Usher and myself to be invited to accompany him. W T e agreed to join him in Indianapolis. On reach- 306 TEE L1FE 0F LINCOLN. ing that city the Presidential party had already arrived, and upon inquiry we were informed that the President-elect was in the dining-room of the hotel, at supper. Passing through, we saw that every seat at the numerous tables was occupied, but failed to find Mr. Lincoln. As we were near- ing the door to the office of the hotel, a long arm reached to my shoulder and a shrill voice ex- claimed, 'Hello, Nelson! do you think, after all, the world is going to follow the darned thing off?' It was Mr. Lincoln." The benefits and advantages of the territorial posts offered by President Taylor to Lincoln were freely discussed by the latter's friends. Some urged his acceptance on the usual ground that when Ore- gon was admitted as a State, he might be its first Senator. Lincoln himself had some inclination to accept. He told me himself that he felt by his course in Congress he had committed political sui- cide, and wanted to try a change of locality — hence the temptation to go to Oregon. But when he brought the proposition home to his fireside, his wife put her foot squarely down on it with a firm and emphatic No. That always ended it with Lincoln. The result of the whole thing proved a fortunate deliverance for him, the propriety of which became more apparent as the years rolled by.* * About this time Grant Goodrich, a lawyer in Chicago, pro- posed to take Lincoln into partnership with him. Goodrich had an extensive and paying practice there, but Lincoln refused the offer, giving as a reason that he tended to consumption, and. if THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 307 While a member of Congress and otherwise immersed in politics Lincoln seemed to lose all interest in the law. Of course, what practice he himself controlled passed into other hands. I retained all the business I could, and worked stead- ily on until, when he returned, our practice was as extensive as that of any other firm at the bar. Lincoln realized that much of this was due to my efforts, and on his return he therefore suggested that he had no right to share in the business and profits which I had made. I responded that, as he had aided me and given me prominence when I was young and needed it, I could afford now to be grateful if not generous. I therefore recommended a continuation of the partnership, and we went on as before. I could notice a difference in Lincoln's movement as a lawyer from this time forward. He had begun to realize a certain lack of discipline — a want of mental training and method. Ten years had wrought some change in the law, and more in the lawyers, of Illinois. The conviction had settled in the minds of the people that the pyrotechnics of court room and stump oratory did not necessarily imply extensive or profound ability in the lawyer who resorted to it. The courts were becoming graver and more learned, and the lawyer was learn- ing as a preliminary and indispensable condition to he removed to a city like Chicago, he would have to sit down and study harder than ever. The close application required of him and the confinement in the office, he contended, would soon kill him. He preferred going around on the circuit, and even if he earned smaller fees he felt much happier. 3Qg THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. success that he must be a close reasoner, besides having at command a broad knowledge of the principles on which the statutory law is con- structed. There was of course the same riding on circuit as before, but the courts had improved in tone and morals, and there was less laxity — at least it appeared so to Lincoln. Political defeat had wrought a marked effect on him. It went below the skin and made a changed man of him. He was not soured at his seeming political decline, but still he determined to eschew politics from that time forward and devote himself entirely to the law. And now he began to make up for time lost in politics by studying the law in earnest. No man had greater power of application than he. Once fixing his mind on any subject, nothing could interfere with or disturb him. Frequently I would go out on the circuit with him. We, usually, at the little country inns occupied the same bed. In most cases the beds w r ere too short for him, and his feet would hang over the floor-board, thus expos- ing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing a candle on a chair at the head of the bed, he would read and study for hours. I have known him to study in this position till two o'clock in the morn- ing. Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be safely and soundly asleep. On the circuit in this way he studied Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in the six books. How he could main- tain his mental equilibrium or concentrate his thoughts on an abstract mathematical proposition, THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 309 while Davis, Logan, Swett, Edwards, and I so in- dustriously and volubly filled the air with our interminable snoring was a problem none of us could ever solve. I was on the circuit with Lin- coln probably one- fourth of the time. The remain- der of my time was spent in Springfield looking after the business there, but I know that life on the circuit was a gay one. It was rich with incidents, and afforded the nomadic lawyers ample relaxation from all the irksome toil that fell to their lot. Lincoln loved it. I suppose it would be a fair estimate to state that he spent over half the year following Judges Treat and Davis around on the circuit. On Saturdays the court and attorneys, if within a reasonable distance, would usually start for their homes. Some went for a fresh supply of clothing, but the greater number went simply to spend a day of rest with their families. The only exception was Lincoln, who usually spent his Sun- days with the loungers at the country tavern, and only went home at the end of the circuit or term of court. "At first," * relates one of his colleagues on the circuit, "we wondered at it, but soon learned to account for his strange disinclination to go home. Lincoln himself never had much to say about home, and we never felt free to comment on it. Most of us had pleasant, inviting homes, and as we struck out for them I'm sure each one of us down in our hearts had a mingled feeling of pity and sym- pathy for him." If the day was long and he was * David Davis, MS. 310 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. oppressed, the feeling was soon relieved by the nar- ration of a story. The tavern loungers enjoyed it, and his melancholy, taking to itself wings, seemed to fly away. In the role of a story-teller I am prone to regard Mr. Lincoln as without an equal. I have seen him surrounded by a crowd numbering as many as two and in some cases three hundred persons, all deeply interested in the outcome of a story which, when he had finished it, speedily found repetition in every grocery and lounging place within reach. His power of mimicry, as I have before noted, and his manner of recital, were in many respects unique, if not remarkable. His countenance and all his features seemed to take part in the performance. As he neared the pith or point of the joke or story every vestige of serious- ness disappeared from his face. His little gray eyes sparkled; a smile seemed to gather up, cur- tain like, the corners of his mouth; his frame quiv- ered with suppressed excitement; and when the point — or "nub" of the story, as he called it — came, no one's laugh was heartier than his. These back- woods allegories are out of date now, and any lawyer, ambitious to gain prominence, would hardly dare thus to entertain a crowd, except at the risk of his reputation; but with Lincoln it gave him, in some mysterious way, a singularly firm hold on the people. Lincoln was particularly strong in Menard county, and while on the circuit there he met with William Engle and James Murray, two men who were noted also for their story-telling proclivities. I THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 311 am not now asserting for the country and the period what would at a later day be considered a very high standard of taste. Art had not such patrons as to-day, but the people loved the beau- tiful as Nature furnished it, and the good as they found it, with as much devotion as the more refined classes now are joined to their idols. News- papers were scarce, and the court-house, with its cluster of itinerant lawyers, disseminated much of the information that was afterwards broken up into smaller bits at the pioneer's fireside. A curious civilization indeed, but one through which every Western State distant from the great arterial river or seaboard has had to pass. When Lincoln, Murray, and Engle met, there was sure to be a crowd. All were more or less masters in their art. I have seen the little country tavern where these three were wont to meet after an adjourn- ment of court, crowded almost to suffocation with an audience of men who had gathered to witness the contest among the members of the strange trium- virate. The physician of the town, all the lawyers, and not unfrequently a preacher could be found in the crowd that filled the doors and windows. The yarns they spun and the stories they told would not bear repetition here, but many of them had morals which, while exposing the weaknesses of mankind, stung like a whip-lash. Some were no doubt a thou- sand years old, with just enough "verbal varnish" and alterations of names and dates to make them new and crisp. By virtue of the last-named applica- tion, Lincoln was enabled to draw from Balzac a .312 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. "droll story," and locating it in "Egypt"* or in Indiana, pass it off for a purely original conception. Every recital was followed by its "storm of laughter and chorus of cheers." After this had all died down, some unfortunate creature, through whose thickened skull the point had just penetrated, would break- out in a guffaw, starting another wave of laughter which, growing to the proportions of a billow, would come rolling in like a veritable breaker. I have known these story-telling jousts to continue long after midnight — in some cases till the very small hours of the morning. I have seen Judge Treat, who was the very impersonation of gravity itself, sit up till the last and laugh until, as he often expressed it, "he almost shook his ribs loose." The next day he would ascend the bench and listen to Lincoln in a murder trial, with all the seeming severity of an English judge in wig and gown. Amid such surroundings, a leading figure in such society, alternately reciting the latest effusion of the bar-room or mimicking the clownish antics of the negro minstrel, he who was destined to be an im- mortal emancipator, was steadily and unconsciously nearing the great trial of his life. We shall see further on how this rude civilization crystallized both his logic and his wit for use in another day. Reverting again to Mr. Lincoln as a lawyer, it is proper to add that he detested the mechanical work of the office. He wrote few papers — less perhaps than any other man at the bar. Such work was * The word Egypt, so frequently used in this book, refers to that portion of Illinois which lies south of the famous National Road. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 313 usually left to me for the first few years we were together. Afterwards we made good use of stu- dents who came to learn the law in our office. A Chicago lawyer,* in a letter to me about Mr. Lin- coln, in 1866, says: "Lincoln once told me that he had taken you in as a partner, supposing you had system and would keep things in order, but that he found out you had no more system than he had, but that you were in reality a good lawyer, so that he was doubly disappointed." Lincoln knew no such thing as order or method in his law practice. He made no preparation in advance, but trusted to the hour for its inspiration and to Providence for his supplies. In the matter of letter-writingf he made no distinction between one of a business nature or any other kind. If a happy thought or expression struck him he was by no means reluctant to use it. As early as 1839 he wrote to a gentle- * W. C Whitney. MS. t "I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a discharge, for all trouble we have been at to take his business out of our hands and give it to somebody else. K is impossible to collect money on that or any other claim here now, and although you know I am not a very petulant man, I declare that I am almost out of patience with Mr. Everett s endless importunities. It seems like he not only writes all the letters he can himself, but he gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to be constantly writing to us about his claim. 1 have always said that Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be obliged ; but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to collect his claim, and therefore would do it if we could. I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for what we have done provided he will see the court costs paid for which we are aecurity."— MS. letter to Joshua F. Speed, March Si. 1842. 314 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. man about a matter of business, observing crustily that "a d d hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert Kenzie never received the $80 to which he was entitled." In July, 1851, he wrote a facetious message to one of his clients, saying: "I have news from Ottawa that we win our case. As the Dutch justice said when he married folks, 'Now where ish my hundred tol- lars.' "* He was proverbially careless as to habits. In a letter to a fellow-lawyer in another town, apolo- gizing for failure to answer sooner, he explains : "First, I have been very busy in the United States Court ; second, when I received the letter I put it in my old hat and buying a new one the next day the old one was set aside, and so the letter was lost sight of for a time." This hat of Lincoln's — a silk plug — was an extraordinary receptacle. It was his desk and his memorandum-book. In it he carried * The following- unpublished letter in possession of C. F. Gun- ther, Esq., Chicago, Ills., shows how he proposed to fill a va- cancy in the office of Clerk of the United States Court. It reads like the letter of a politician in the midst of a canvass for of- fice : "Springfield., III., December 6, 1854. "Hon. Justice McLeax. "Sir : I understand it is in contemplation to displace the present Clerk and appoint a new one for the Circuit and District Courts of Illinois. I am very friendly to the present incum- bent, and both for his own sake and that of his family, T wish him to be retained so long as it is possible for the Court to do so. "In the contingency of his removal, however, I have recom- mended William Butler as his successor, and I do not wish what I write now to be taken as any abatement of that recom- mendation. "William J. Black is also an applicant for the appointment, and I write this at the solicitation of his friends to say that he is every way worthy of the office, and that I doubt not the conferring it upon him will give great satisfaction. "Your ob't servant, "A. Lincoln/' THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 315 his bank book and the bulk of his letters. When- ever in his reading or researches he wished to pre- serve an idea, he jotted it down on an envelope or- stray piece of paper and placed it inside the lining. Afterwards when the memorandum was needed there was only one place to look for it.* How Lincoln appeared and acted in the law office has been graphically and, I must confess, truthfully told by a gentleman now in New York, who was for several years a student in our office. I beg to quote a few lines from him: "My brother met Mr. Lin- coln in Ottawa, Ill.,t one day, and said to him : 'I have a brother whom I would very much like to have enter your office as a student.' 'All right!' was his reply ; 'send him down and we will take a look at him.' I was then studying law at Grand Rapids, Mich., and on hearing from my brother I imme- diately packed up and started for Springfield. I arrived there on Saturday night. On Sunday Mr. Lincoln was pointed out to me. I well remember this first sight of him. He was striding along, hold- ing little Tad, then about six years old, by the hand, who could with the greatest difficulty keep up with his father. In the morning I applied at the office of * Lincoln had always on the top of our desk a bundle of pap- ers into which he slipped anything he wished to keep and after- wards refer to. It was a receptacle of general information. Some years ago, on removing the furniture from the office, I took down the bundle and blew from the top the liberal coat of dust that had accumulated thereon. Immediately underneath the string was a slip bearing this endorsement, in his hand : "When you can't find it anywhere else, look in this." t John H. Littlefield, Brooklyn Eagle, October 16, 1887. 316 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. Lincoln and Herndon for admission as a student. The office was on the second floor of a brick building on the public square, opposite the court-house. You went up one flight of stairs and then passed along a hallway to the rear office, which was a medium-sized room. There was one long table in the center of the room, and a shorter one running in the opposite direction, forming a T, and both were covered with green baize. There were two windows which looked into the back yard. In one corner was an old-fashioned secretary with pigeon- holes and a drawer, and here Mr. Lincoln and his partner kept their law papers. There was also a book-case containing about 200 volumes of law as well as miscellaneous books. The morning I en- tered the office Mr. Lincoln and his partner, Mr. Herndon, were both present. Mr. Lincoln addressed his partner thus: 'Billy, this is the young man of whom I spoke to you. Whatever arrangement you make with him will be satisfactory to me.' Then, turning to me, he said, 'I hope you will not become so enthusiastic in your studies of Blackstone and Kent as did two young men whom we had here. Do you see that spot over there?' pointing to a large ink stain on the wall. 'Well, one of these young men got so enthusiastic in his pursuit of legal lore that he fired an inkstand at the other one's head, and that is the mark he made.' I immediately began to clean up about the office a little. Mr. Lincoln had been in Congress and had the usual amount of seeds to distribute to the farmers. These were sent out with Free Soil and Republican docu- THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 317 ments. In my efforts to clean up, I found that some of the seeds had sprouted in the dirt that had collected in the office. Judge Logan and Milton Hay occupied the front offices on the same floor with Lincoln and Herndon, and one day Mr. Hay came in and said with apparent astonishment : 'What's happened here?' 'Oh, nothing,' replied Lincoln, pointing to me, 'only this young man has been cleaning up a little.' One of Lincoln's striking characteristics was his simplicity, and nowhere was this trait more strikingly exhibited than in his willingness to receive instruction from anybody and everybody. One day he came into the office and addressing his partner, said: 'Billy, what's the mean- ing of antithesis?' Mr. Herndon gave him the def- inition of the word, and I said : 'Mr. Lincoln, if you will allow me, I will give you an example.' 'All right, John, go ahead,' said Mr. Lincoln in his hearty manner. 'Phillips says, in his essay on Napoleon, "A pretended patriot, he impoverished the country; a professed Catholic, he imprisoned the Pope," ' etc. Mr. Lincoln thanked me and seemed very much pleased. Returning from off the circuit once he said to Mr. Herndon: 'Billy, I heard a good story while I was up in the country. Judge D was complimenting the landlord on the excellence of his beef. "I am surprised," he said, "that you have such good beef. You must have to kill a whole critter when you want any." "Yes," said the land- lord, "we never kill less than a whole critter." "Lincoln's favorite position when unravelling some knotty law point was to stretch both of his legs 318 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. at full length upon a chair in front of him. In this position, with books on the table near by and in his lap, he worked up his case. No matter how deeply interested in his work, if any one came in he had something humorous and pleasant to say, and usually wound up by telling a joke or an anecdote. I have heard him relate the same story three times within as many hours to persons who came in at different periods, and every time he laughed as heartily and enjoyed it as if it were a new story. His humor was infectious. I had to laugh because I thought it funny that Mr. Lincoln enjoyed a story so repeatedly told. "There was no order in the office at all. The firm of Lincoln and Herndon kept no books. They divided their fees without taking any receipts or making any entries on books. One day Mr. Lin- coln received $5,000 as a fee in a railroad case. He came in and said ; 'Well, Billy,' addressing his partner, Mr. Herndon, 'here is our fee ; sit down and let me divide.' He counted out $2,500 to his' partner, and gave it to him with as much nonchalance as he would have given a few cents for a paper. Cupidity had no abiding place in his nature. "I took a good deal of pains in getting up a speech which I wanted to deliver during a political cam- paign. I told Mr. Lincoln that I would like to read it to him. He sat down in one chair, put his feet into another one, and said : 'John, you can fire away with that speech ; I guess I can stand it.' I unrolled the manuscript, and proceeded with some trepidation. 'That's a good point, John,' he would THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 3 19 say, at certain places, and at others : 'That's good — very good indeed,' until I felt very much elated over my effort. I delivered the speech over fifty times during the campaign. Elmer E. Ellsworth, afterwards colonel of the famous Zouaves, who was killed in Alexandria, early in the war, was nominally a student in Lincoln's office. His head was so full of ' military matters, however, that he thought little of law. Of Ellsworth, Lincoln said: That young man has a real genius for war !' " During the six years following his retirement from Congress, Lincoln, realizing in a marked degree his want of literary knowledge, extended somewhat his research in that direction. He was naturally indisposed to undertake anything that savored of exertion, but his brief public career had exposed the limited area of his literary attainments. Along with his Euclid therefore he carried a well- worn copy of Shakespeare, in which he read no lit- tle in his leisure moments. "In travelling on the circuit," relates one of his associates at the bar,* "he was in the habit of rising earlier than his broth- ers of the bar. On such occasions he was wont to sit by the fire, having uncovered the coals, and muse, and ponder, and soliloquize, inspired, no doubt, by that strange psychological influence which is so poetically described by Poe in 'The Raven.' On one of these occasions, at the town of Lincoln, sit- ting in the position described, he quoted aloud and at length the poem called 'Immortality/ When he * Lawrence Weldon, letter, Feb. 10, 1866, MS. 320 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. had finished he was questioned as to the authorship and where it could be found. He had forgotten the author, but said that to him it sounded as much like true poetry as anything he had ever heard. He was particularly pleased with the last two stanzas." Beyond a limited acquaintance with Shakespeare, Byron, and Burns, Mr. Lincoln, comparatively speaking, had no knowledge of literature. He was familiar with the Bible, and now and then evinced a fancy for some poem or short sketch to which his attention was called by some one else, or which he happened to run across in his cursory reading of books or newspapers. He never in his life sat down and read a book through, and yet he could readily quote any number of passages from the few volumes whose pages he had hastily scanned. In addition to his well-known love for the poem "Immortality" or "Why should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud," he always had a great fondness for Oliver Wendell Holmes' "Last Leaf," the fourth stanza of which, beginning with the verse, "The mossy marbles rest," I have often heard him repeat. He once told me of a song a young lady had sung in his hearing at a time when he was laboring under some dejection of spirits. The lines struck his fancy, and although he did not know the singer — having heard her from the sidewalk as he passed her house — he sent her a request to write the lines out for him. Within a day or two he came into the office, carrying in his hand a delicately perfumed envelope which bore the address, "Mr. Lincoln — THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 321 Present,"' in an unmistakable female hand. In it, written on gilt-edged paper, were the lines of the song. The plaintive strain of the piece and its melancholy sentiment struck a responsive chord in a heart already filled with gloom and sorrow. Though ill-adapted to dissipate one's depression, something about it charmed Lincoln, and he read and re-read it with increasing relish. I had for- gotten the circumstance until recently, when, in going over some old papers and letters turned over to me by Mr. Lincoln, I ran across the manuscript, and the incident was brought vividly to my mind. The envelope, still retaining a faint reminder of the perfumed scent given it thirty years before, bore the laconic endorsement, "poem — I like this," in the handwriting of Mr. Lincoln. Unfortunately no name accompanied the manuscript, and unless the lady on seeing this chooses to make herself known, we shall probably not learn who the singer was. The composition is headed, "The Enquiry." I leave it to my musical friends to render it into song. Following are the lines : "Tell me, ye winged winds That round my pathway roar, Do ye not know some spot Where mortals weep no more? Some lone and pleasant vale Some valley in the West, Where, free from toil and pain, The weary soul may rest? The loud wind dwindled to a whisper low, And sighed for pity as it answered, No. 322 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. "Tell me, thou mighty deep, Whose billows round me play, Knows't thou some favored spot, Some island far away, Where weary man may find The bliss for which he sighs; Where sorrow never lives And friendship never dies? The loud waves rolling in perpetual flow Stopped for awhile and sighed to answer, No. "And thou, serenest moon, That with such holy face Dost look upon the Earth Asleep in Night's embrace — Tell me, in all thy round Hast thou not seen some spot Where miserable man Might find a happier lot? Behind a cloud the moon withdrew in woe, And a voice sweet but sad responded, No. "Tell me, my secret soul, Oh, tell me, Hope and Faith. Is there no resting-place From sorrow, sin, and death? Is there no happy spot Where mortals may be blessed, Where grief may find a balm And weariness a rest? Faith, Hope, and Love, best boon to mortals given, Waved their bright wings and whispered, Yes, in Heaven."* Judge S. H. Treat, recently deceased, thus * Persons familiar with literature will recognize this as a poem written by Charles Mackay, an English writer who repre- sented a London newspaper in the United States during the Rebellion as its war correspondent. It was set to music as a ohant, and as such was frequently rendered in public by the famous Hutchinson family of singers. I doubt if Mr. Lincoln aver knew who wrote it. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 323 describes Lincoln's first appearance in the Supreme Court of Illinois. "A case being called for hearing, Mr. Lincoln stated that he appeared for the appel- lant and was ready to proceed with the argument. He then said : 'This is the first case I have ever had in this court, and I have therefore examined it with great care. As the Court will perceive by looking at the abstract of the record, the only ques- tion in the case is one of authority. I have not been able to find any authority to sustain my side of the case, but I have found several cases directly in point on the other side. I will now give these authorities to the court, and then submit the case." A lawyer in Beardstown relates this :* "Lincoln came into my office one day with the remark: 'I see you've been suing some of my clients, and I've come down to see about it.' He had reference to a suit I had brought to enforce the specific per- formance of a contract. I explained the case to him, and showed my proofs. He seemed surprised that I should deal so frankly with him, and said he would be as frank with me ; that my client was justly entitled to a decree, and he should so repre- sent it to the court; and that it was against his principles to contest a clear matter of right. So my client got a deed for a farm which, had another lawyer been in Mr. Lincoln's place, would have been consumed by the costs of litigation for years, with the result probably the same in the end." A young man once wrote to Lincoln, enquiring for the * J. Henry Shaw, letter, June 13, 1866, MS. 324 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law. 'The mode is very simple," he responded, "though laborious and tedious. It is only to get books and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after reading carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, and Story's Equity in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing."* Lincoln never believed in suing for a fee. If a client would not pay on request he never sought to enforce collection. I remember once a man who had been indicted for forgery or fraud employed us to defend him. The illness of the prosecuting attorney caused some delay in the case, and our client, becoming dissatisfied at our conduct of the case, hired some one else, who superseded us most effectually. The defendant declining to pay us the fee demanded, on the ground that we had not rep- resented him at the trial of the cause, I brought suit against him in Lincoln's absence and obtained judgment for our fee. After Lincoln's return from the circuit the fellow hunted him up and by means of a carefully constructed tale prevailed on him to release the judgment without receiving a cent of pay. The man's unkind treatment of us deserved no such mark of generosity from Lincoln, and yet he could not resist the appeal of any one in poverty and want. He could never turn from a * Letter to J. M. Brockman, Sept. 25, 1859, MS. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 325 woman in tears.* It was no surprise to me or any of his intimate friends that so many designing women with the conventional widows' weeds and easy-flowing tears overcame him in Washington. It was difficult for him to detect an imposter, and hence it is not to be marvelled at that he cau- tioned his secretaries : "Keep them away — I can- not stand it." On many questions I used to grow somewhat enthusiastic, adopting sometimes a lofty metaphor by way of embellishment. Lincoln once warned me ; "Billy, don't shoot too high — aim lower and the common people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach — at least they are the ones you ought to reach. The educated and re- fined people will understand you any way. If you aim too high your ideas will go over the heads of the masses, and only hit those who need no hitting." While it is true that from his peculiar construction Lincoln dwelt entirely in the head and in the land of thought, and while he was physically a lazy man, yet he was intellectually energetic; he was not only energetic, but industrious ; not only industrious, but tireless ; not only tireless, but indefatigable. There- fore if in debate with him a man stood on a questionable foundation he might well watch where- on he stood. Lincoln could look a long distance ahead and calculate the triumph of right. With him justice and truth were paramount. If to him * I have heard Lincoln say he thanked God that he was not born a woman, because he could not refuse any request if it was not apparently dishonest. 326 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. a thing seemed untrue he could not in his nature simulate truth. His retention by a man to defend a lawsuit did not prevent him from throwing it up in its most critical stage if he believed he was espousing an unjust cause. This extreme conscien- tiousness and disregard of the alleged sacredness of the professional cloak robbed him of much so- called success at the bar. He once wrote to one of our clients: "I do not think there is the least use of doing anything more with your lawsuit. I not only do not think you are sure to gain it, but I do think you are sure to lose it. Therefore the sooner it ends the better."* Messrs. Stuart and Edwards once brought a suit against a client of ours which involved the title to considerable property. At that time we had only two or three terms of court, and the docket was somewhat crowded. The plain- tiff's attorneys were pressing us for a trial, and we were equally as anxious to ward it off. What we wanted were time and a continuance to the next term. We dared not make an affidavit for contin- uance, founded on facts, because no such pertinent and material facts as the law contemplated existed. Our case for the time seemed hopeless. One morn- ing, however, I accidentally overheard a remark from Stuart indicating his fear lest a certain fact should happen to come into our possession. I felt some relief, and at once drew up a ficititious plea, averring as best I could the substance of the doubts I knew existed in Stuart's mind. The Letter to H. Keeling, Esq., March 3, 1858, MS. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 2*27 plea was as skilfully drawn as I knew how, and was framed as if we had the evidence to sustain it. The whole thing was a sham, but so con- structed as to work the desired continuance, because I knew that Stuart and Edwards believed the facts were as I pleaded them. This was done in the absence and without the knowledge of Lin- coln. The plea could not be demurred to, and the opposing counsel dared not take the issue on it. It perplexed them sorely. At length, before further steps were taken, Lincoln came into court. He looked carefully over all the papers in the case, as was his custom, and seeing my engenious subterfuge, asked, "Is this seventh plea a good one?" Proud of the exhibition of my skill, I answered that it was. "But," he inquired, incredulously, "is it founded on fact?" I was obliged to respond in the negative, at the same time following up my answer with an explanation of what I had overheard Stuart inti- mate, and of how these alleged facts could be called facts if a certain construction were put upon them. I insisted that our position was justifiable, and that our client must have time or be ruined. I could see at once it failed to strike Lincoln as just right. He scratched his head thoughtfully and asked, "Hadn't we better withdraw that plea? You know it's a sham, and a sham is very often but another name for a lie. Don't let it go on record. The cursed thing may come staring us in the face long after this suit has been forgotten." The plea was with- drawn. By some agency — not our own — the case was continued and our client's interests were saved. 328 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. I only relate this incident to illustrate Lincoln's far- seeing capacity ; it serves to show how over-cautious he seemed to be with regard to how his record might look in the future. I venture the assertion that he was the only member of the bar in Spring- held who would have taken such a conscientious view of the matter. One phase of Lincoln's character, almost lost sight of in the commonly accepted belief in his humility and kindly feeling under all circumstances, was his righteous indignation when aroused. In such cases he was the most fearless man I ever knew. I remember a murder case in which we appeared for the defense, and during the trial of which the judge — a man of ability far inferior to Lincoln's — kept ruling against us. Finally, a very material question, in fact one around which the en- tire case seemed to revolve, came up, and again the Court ruled adversely. The prosecution was jubi- lant, and Lincoln, seeing defeat certain unless he recovered his ground, grew very despondent. The notion crept into his head that the Court's rulings, which were absurd and almost spiteful, were aimed at him, and this angered him beyond reason. He told me of his feelings at dinner, and said: "I have determined to crowd the Court to the wall and re- gain my position before night." From that time forward it was interesting to watch him. At the reassembling of court he arose to read a few author- ities in support of his position. In his comments he kept within the bounds of propriety just far enough to avoid a reprimand for contempt of court. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 329 He characterized the continued rulings against him as not only unjust but foolish; and, figuratively speaking, he pealed the Court from head to foot. I shall never forget the scene. Lincoln had the crowd, a portion of the bar, and the jury with him. He knew that fact, and it, together with the belief that injustice had been done him, nerved him to a feeling of desperation. He was wrought up to the point of madness. When a man of large heart and head is wrought up and mad, as the old adage runs, "he's mad all over." Lincoln had studied up the points involved, but knowing full well the calibre of the judge, relied mostly on the moral effect of his personal bearing and influence. He was alternately furious and eloquent, pursuing the Court with broad facts and pointed inquiries in marked and rapid succession. I remember he made use of this homely incident in illustration of some point : "In early days a party of men went out hunting for a wild boar. But the game came upon them unawares, and scampering away they all climbed the trees save one, who, seizing the animal by the ears, undertook to hold him, but despairing of success cried out to his companions in the trees, 'For God's sake, boys, come down and help me let go.' The prosecution endeavored to break him down or even "head him off," but all to no pur- pose. His masterly arraignment of law and facts had so effectually badgered the judge that, strange as it may seem, he pretended to see the error in his former position, and finally reversed his decision in Lincoln's favor. The latter saw his triumph, and 330 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. surveyed a situation of which he was the master. His client was acquitted, and he had swept the field. In the case of Parker vs. Hoyt, tried in the United States Court in Chicago, Lincoln was one of the counsel for the defendant. The suit was on the merits of an infringement of a patent water wheel. The trial lasted several days and Lincoln mani- fested great interest in the case. In his earlier days he had run, or aided in running, a saw-mill, and ex- plained in his argument the action of trie water on the wheel in a manner so clear and intelligible that the jury were enabled to comprehend the points and line of defence without the least difficulty. It was evident he had carried the jury with him in a most masterly argument, the force of which could not be broken by the reply of the opposing coun- sel. After the jury retired he became very anxious and uneasy. The jury were in another building, the windows of which opened on the street, and had been out for some two hours. "In passing along the street, one of the jurors on whom we very much relied," relates Lincoln's associate in the case,* "he being a very intelligent man and firm in his convic- tions, held up to him one finger. Mr. Lincoln be- came very much excited, fearing it indicated that eleven of the jury were against him. He knew if this man was for him he would never yield his opin- ion. He added, if he was like a juryman he had in Tazewell county, the defendant was safe. He was there employed, he said, to prosecute a suit for * Grant Goodrich, letter, Nov. 9, 1866, MS. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 331 divorce. His client was a pretty, refined, and inter- esting little woman, and in court. The defendant, her husband, was a gross, morose, querulous, fault- finding, and uncomfortable man, and entirely unfit- ted for the husband of such a woman ; but although he was able to prove the use of very offensive and vulgar epithets applied by the husband to his wife, and all sorts of annoyances, yet there were no such acts of personal violence as were required by the statute to justify a divorce. Lincoln did the best he could, and appealed to the jury to have compas- sion on the woman, and not to bind her to such a man and such a life as awaited her if required to live longer with him. The jury took about the same view of it in their deliberations. They de- sired to find for his fair client, but could discover no evidence which would really justify a verdict for her. At last they drew up a verdict for the de- fendant, and all signed but one fellow, who on be- ing approached with the verdict said, coolly: 'Gen- tlemen, I am going to lie down to sleep, and when you get ready to give a verdict for that little woman, then wake me and not until then; for be- fore I will give a verdict against her I will lie here till I rot and the pismires carry me out through the key-hole.' 'Now,' observed Lincoln, 'if that jury- man will stick like the man in Tazewell county we are safe.' Strange to relate, the jury did come in, and with a verdict for the defendant. Lincoln always regarded this as one of the gratifying triumphs of his professional life." CHAPTER XL A law office is a dull, dry place so far as pleasurable or interesting incidents are concerned. If one is in search of stories of fraud, deceit, cruelty, broken promises, blasted homes, there is no better place to learn them than a law office. But to the majority of persons these painful recitals are anything but attractive, and it is well perhaps that it should be so. In the office, as in the court room, Lincoln, when discussing any point, was never arbitrary or insinuating. He was deferential, cool, patient, and respectful. When he reached the of- fice, about nine o'clock in the morning, the first thing he did was to pick up a newspaper, spread himself out on an old sofa, one leg on a chair, and read aloud, much to my discomfort. Singularly enough Lincoln never read any other way but aloud. This habit used to annoy me almost beyond the point of endurance. I once asked him why he did so. This was his explanation : "When I read aloud two senses catch the idea : first, I see what I read ; second, I hear it, and therefore I can remem- ber it better." He never studied law books unless a case was on hand for consideration — never fol- lowed up the decisions of the supreme courts, as other lawyers did. It seemed as if he depended for 332 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 333 his effectiveness in managing a law suit entirely on the stimulus and inspiration of the final hour. He paid but little attention to the fees and money mat- ters of the firm — usually leaving all such to me. He never entered an item in the account book. If any one paid money to him which belonged to the firm, on arriving at the office he divided it with me. If I was not there, he would wrap up my share in a piece of paper and place it in my drawer — marking it with a pencil, "Case of Roe vs. Doe. — Herndon's half." On many topics he was not a good conversation- alist, because he felt that he was not learned enough. Neither was he a good listener. Putting it a little strongly, he was often not even polite. If present with others, or participating in a conversa- tion, he was rather abrupt, and in his anxiety to say something apt or to illustrate the subject under discussion, would burst in with a story. In our office I have known him to consume the whole fore- noon relating stories. If a man came to see him for the purpose of finding out something which he did not care to let him know and at the same time did not want to refuse him, he was very adroit. In such cases Lincoln would do most of the talking, swinging around what he suspected was the vital point, but never nearing it, interlarding his answers with a seemingly endless supply of stories and jokes. The interview being both interesting and pleasant, the man would depart in good humor, believing he had accomplished his mission. After he had walked away a few squares and had cooled off, the 334 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. question would come up, "Well, what did I find out?" Blowing away the froth of Lincoln's hu- morous narratives he would find nothing substan- tial left. "As he entered the trial," relates one of his col- leagues at the bar,* "where most lawyers would ob- ject he would say he 'reckoned' it would be fair to let this in, or that ; and sometimes, when his adver- sary could not quite prove what Lincoln knew to be the truth, he 'reckoned' it would be fair to admit the truth to be so-and-so. When he did object to the court, and when he heard his objections an- swered, he would often say, 'Well, I reckon I must be wrong.' Now, about the time he had practised this three-fourths through the case, if his adversary didn't understand him, he would wake up in a few minutes learning that he had feared the Greeks too late and find himself beaten. He was wise as a serpent in the trial of a cause, but I have had too many scares from his blows to certify that he was harmless as a dove. When the whole thing was unravelled, the adversary would begin to see that what he was so blandly giving away was simply what he couldn't get and keep. By giving away six points and carrying the seventh he carried his case, and the whole case hanging on the seventh, he traded away everything which would give him the least aid in carrying that. Any man who took Lincoln for a simple-minded man would very soon wake up with his back in a ditch." * Leonard Swett. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 335 Lincoln's restless ambition found its gratification only in the field of politics. He used the law merely as a stepping-stone to what he considered a more attractive condition in the political world. In the allurements held out by the latter he seemed to be happy. Nothing in Lincoln's life has pro- voked more discussion than the question of his ability as a lawyer. I feel warranted in saying that he was at the same time a very great and a very insignificant lawyer. Judge David Davis, in his eulogy on Lincoln at Indianapolis, delivered at the meeting of the bar there in May, 1865, said this: "In all the elements that constituted a lawyer he had few equals. He was great at nisi prius and before an appellate tribunal. He seized the strong points of a cause and presented them with clearness and great compactness. His mind was logical and direct, and he did not indulge in extraneous discussion. Generalities and platitudes had no charm for him. An unfailing vein of humor never deserted him, and he was able to claim the attention of court and jury when the cause was most uninteresting by the appropriateness of his anecdotes. His power of comparison was large, and he rarely failed in a legal discussion to use that mode of reasoning. The framework of his mental and moral being was honesty, and a wrong case was poorly defended by him. The ability which some eminent lawyers pos- sess of explaining away the bad points of a cause by ingenious sophistry was denied him. In order to bring into full activity his great powers it was nec- essary that he should be convinced of the right and 336 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. justice of the matter which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the cause was great or small he was usually successful."* This statement of Judge Davis in general is cor- rect, but in some particulars is faulty. It was intended as a eulogy on Lincoln, and as such would not admit of as many limitations and modifications as if spoken under other circumstances. In 186G Judge Davis said in a statement made to me in his home at Bloomington, which I still have. "Mr. Lin- coln had no managing faculty nor organizing power; hence a child could conform to the simple and tech- nical rules, the means and the modes of getting at justice better than he. The law has its own rules, and a student could get at them or keep with them better than Lincoln. Sometimes he was forced to study these if he could not get the rubbish of a case removed. But all the way through his lack of method and organizing ability was clearly appar- ent." The idea that Mr. Lincoln was a great law- yer in the higher courts and a good nisi prius lawyer, and yet that a child or student could manage a case in court better than he, seems strangely inconsistent, but the facts of his life as a lawyer will reconcile this and other apparent contradictions. I was not only associated with Mr. Lincoln in Springfield, but was frequently on the circuit with * He never took advantage of a man's low character to preju- dice the jury. Mr. Lincoln thought his duty to his client extended to what was honorable and high-minded, just and noble — noth- ing further. Hence the meanest man at the bar always paid great deference and respect to him. — David Davis. S'^pt. 10, 1866. MS. THE LIFE 01 LINCOLN. 32>J him, but of course not so much as Judge Davis, who held the court, and whom Lincoln followed around on the circuit for at least six months out of the year. I easily realized that Lincoln was strik- ingly deficient in the technical rules of the law. Although he was constantly reminding young legal aspirants to study and "work, work," yet I doubt if he ever read a single elementary law book through in his life. In fact, I may truthfully say. I never knew him to read through a law book of any kind. Practically he knew nothing of the rules of evidence, of pleading, or practice, as laid down in the text-books, and seemed to care nothing about them. He had a keen sense of justice, and strug- gled for it, throwing aside forms, methods, and rules, until it appeared pure as a ray of light flash- ing through a fog-bank. He was not a general reader in any field of knowledge, but when he had occasion to learn or investigate any subject he was thorough and indefatigable in his search. He not only went to the root of a question, but dug up the root, and separated and analyzed every fibre of it. He was in every respect a case lawyer, never cramming himself on any question till he had a case in which the question was involved. He thought slowly and acted slowly; he must needs have time to analyze all the facts in a case and wind them into a connected story. I have seen him lose cases of the plainest justice, which the most inexperienced member of the bar would have gained without effort. Two things were essential to his success in managing a case. One was time; 338 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. the other a feeling of confidence in the justice of the cause he represented. He used to say, "If I can free this case from technicalities and get it prop- erly swung to the jury, I'll win it." But if either of these essentials were lacking, he was the weakest man at the bar. He was greatest in my opinion as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of Illinois. There the cases were never hurried. The attorneys gen- erally prepared their cases in the form of briefs, and the movements of the court and counsel were so slow that no one need be caught by surprise. I was with Lincoln once and listened to an oral argument by him in which he rehearsed an extended history of the law. It was a carefully prepared and mas- terly discourse, but, as I thought, entirely useless. After he was through and we were walking home I asked him why he went so far back in the history of the law. I presumed the court knew enough his- tory. "That's where you're mistaken," was his instant rejoinder. "I dared not trust the case on the presumption that the court knows everything — in fact I argued it on the presumption that the court didn't know anything," a statement which, when one reviews the decision of our appellate courts, is not so extravagent as one would at first suppose. I used to grow restless at Lincoln's slow move- ments and speeches in court. "Speak with more vim," I would frequently say, "and arouse the jury — talk faster and keep them awake". In answer to such a suggestion he one day made use of this illus- tration : "Give me your little pen-knife, with its short blade, and hand me that old jack-knife, lying THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 339 on the table." Opening the blade of the pen-knife he said: "You see, this blade at the point travels rapidly, but only through a small portion of space till it stops; while the long blade of the jack-knife moves no faster but through a much greater space than the small one. Just so with the long, labored movements of my mind. I may not emit ideas as rapidly as others, because I am compelled by nature to speak slowly, but when I do throw off a thought it seems to me, though it comes with some effort, it has force enough to cut its own way and travel a greater distance." This was said to me when we were alone in our office simply for illustration. It was not said boastingly. As a specimen of Lincoln's method of reasoning I insert here the brief or notes of an argument used by him in a lawsuit as late as 1858. I copy from the original. "Legislation and adjudication must follow and conform to the progress of society. "The progress of society now begins to produce cases of the transfer for debts of the entire property of railroad corporations; and to enable transferees to use and enjoy the transferred property legislation and adjudication begin to be necessary. "Shall this class of legislation just now beginning with us be general or special? "Section Ten of our Constitution requires that it should be general, if possible. (Read the Section.) "Special legislation always trenches upon the judi- cial department; and in so far violates Section Two of the Constitution. (Read it.) "Just reasoning — policy — is in favor of general legislation — else the legislature will be loaded down 340 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. with the investigation of smaller cases — a work which the courts ought to perform, and can perform much more perfectly. How can the Legislature rightly decide the facts between P. & B. and S. C. & Co. "It is said that under a general law, whenever a R. R. Co. gets tired of its debts, it may transfer fraudulently to get rid of them. So they may — so may individuals ; and which — the Legislature or the courts — is best suited to try the question of fraud in either case? "It is said, if a purchaser have acquired legal rights, let him not be robbed of them, but if he needs legislation let him submit to just terms to ob- tain it. "Let him, say we, have general law in advance (guarded in every possible way against fraud), so that, when he acquires a legal right, he will have no occasion to wait for additional legislation ; and if he has practiced fraud let the courts so decide." David Davis said this of Lincoln: "When in a lawsuit he believed his client was oppressed, — as in the Wright case, — he was hurtful in denunciation. WTien he attacked meanness, fraud, or vice, he was powerful, merciless in his castigation." The Wright case referred to was a suit brought by Lincoln and myself to compel a pension agent to refund a por- tion of a fee which he had withheld from the widow of a revolutionary soldier. The entire pension was $400.00, of which sum the agent had retained one-half. The pensioner, an old woman crippled and bent with age, came hobbling into the office and told her story. It stirred Lincoln up, and he walked over to the agent's office and made a demand for a THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 341 return of the money, but without success. Then suit was brought. The day before the trial I hunted up for Lincoln, at his request, a history of the Revolutionary War, of which he read a good portion. He told me to remain during the trial until I had heard his address to the jury. 'Tor," said he, "I am going to skin Wright, and get that money back." The only witness we introduced was the old lady, who through her tears told her story. In his speech to the jury, Lincoln recounted the causes leading to the outbreak of the Revolutionary strug- gle, and then drew a vivid picture of the hardships of Valley Forge, describing with minuteness the men, barefooted and with bleeding feet, creeping over the ice. As he reached that point in his speech wherein he narrated the hardened action of the defendant in fleecing the old woman of her pension his eyes flashed, and throwing aside his handker- chief, which he held in his right hand, he fairly launched into him. His speech for the next five or ten minutes justified the declaration of Davis, that he was "hurtful in denunciation and merciless in castigation." There was no rule of court to re- strain him in his argument, and I never, either on the stump or on other occasions in court, saw him so wrought up. Before he closed, he drew an ideal picture of the plaintiff's husband, the deceased soldier, parting with his wife at the threshold of their home, and kissing their little babe in the cradle, as he started for the war. "Time rolls by," he said, in conclusion; "the heroes of '76 have passed away and are encamped on the other 342 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. shore. The soldier has gone to rest, and now, crip- pled, blinded, and broken, his widow comes to you and to me, gentlemen of the jury, to right her wrongs. She was not always thus. She was once a beautiful young woman. Her step was as elastic, her face as fair, and her voice as sweet as any that rang in the mountains of old Virginia. But now she is poor and defenceless. Out here on the prairies of Illinois, many hundreds of miles away from the scenes of her childhood, she appeals to us, who enjoy the privileges achieved for us by the patriots of the Revolution, for our sympathetic aid and manly protection. All I ask is, shall we befriend her?" The speech made the desired impression on the jury. Half of them were in tears, while the de- fendant sat in the court room, drawn up and writh- ing under the fire of Lincoln's fierce invective. The jury returned a verdict in our favor for every cent we demanded. Lincoln was so much interest- ed in the old lady that he became her surety for costs, paid her way home, and her hotel bill while she was in Springfield. When the judgment was paid we remitted the proceeds to her and made no charge for our services. Lincoln's notes for the argument were unique : "No contract. — Not profes- sional services. — Unreasonable charge. — Money re- tained by Deft not given by Pl'fT. — Revolutionary War. — Describe Valley Forge privations. — Ice — Soldier's bleeding feet. — Pl'ffs husband. — Soldier leaving home for army. — Skin Deft. — Close." It must not be inferred from this that Lincoln was in the habit of slopping over. He never THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 343 hunted up acts of injustice, but if they came to him he was easily enlisted. In 1855 he was attending court at the town of Clinton, Illinois. Fifteen ladies from a neighboring village in the county had been indicted for trespass. Their offence con- sisted in sweeping down on one Tanner, the keeper of a saloon in the village, and knocking in the heads of his barrels. Lincoln was not employed in the case, but sat watching the trial as it pro- ceeded. In defending the ladies their attorney seemed to evince a little want of tact, and this prompted one of the former to invite Mr. Lincoln to add a few words to the jury, if he thought he could aid their cause. He was too gallant to refuse and, their attorney having consented, he made use of the following argument : "In this case I would change the order of indictment and have it read The State vs. Air. Whiskey, instead of The State vs. The Ladies ; and touching these there are three laws : The Law of sel f -protection ; the law of the land, or statute law; and the moral law, or law of God. First, the law of self-protection is a law of necessity, as evinced by our forefathers in casting the tea overboard and asserting their right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. In this case it is the only defense the ladies have, for Tanner neither feared God nor regarded man. Second, the law of the land, or statute law, and Tanner is recreant to both. Third, the moral law, or law of God, and this is probably a law for the violation of which the jury can fix no punishment." Linciln gave some of his own observations on the ruinous 344 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. effects of whiskey in society, and demanded its early suppression. After he had concluded, the Court, without awaiting the return of the jury, dismissed the ladies, saying: "Ladies, go home. I will require no bond of you, and if any fine is ever wanted of you, we will let you know." After Lincoln's death a fellow-lawyer paid this tribute to him :* "He was wonderfully kind, careful, and just. He had an immense stock of common- sense, and he had faith enough in it to trust it in every emergency. Mr. Lincoln's love of justice and fair-play was his predominating trait. I have < often listened to him when I thought he would ^certainly state his case out of court. It was not in "his nature to assume or attempt to bolster up a false position. f He would abandon his case first. ♦Joseph Gillespie, MS., Letter, Oct. 8. 1886. t "Early in 1858 at Danville, 111., I met Lincoln, Swett, and others who had returned from court in an adjoining county, and were discussing - the various features of a murder trial in which Lincoln had made a vigorous fight for the prosecution and Swett had defended. The plea of the defense was insan- ity. On inquiring the name of the defendant I was surprised to learn that it was my old friend Isaac Wyant, formerly of Indiana. I told them that I .had been Wyant's counsel fre- quently and had defended him from almost every charge in the calendar of crimes ; and that he was a weak brother and could be led into almost everything. At once Lincoln began to mani- fest great interest in Wyant's history, and had to be told all about him. The next day on the way to the court-house he told me he had been greatly troubled over what I related about Wyant ; that his sleep had been disturbed by the fear that he had been too bitter and unrelenting in his prosecution of him. "I acted," he said, "on the theory that he was 'possuming' insanity, and now I fear I have been too severe and that the poor fellow may be insane after all. If he cannot realize the wrong of his crime, then I was wrong in aiding to punish him.' " —Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. August. 1888. Statement to J. W. W. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 345 He did so in the case of Buckmaster for the use of Dedham vs. Beems and Arthur, in our Supreme Court, in which I happened to be opposed to him. Another gentlemen, less fastidious, took Mr. Lin- coln's place and gained the case." A widow who owned a piece of valuable land employed Lincoln and myself to examine the title to the property, with the view of ascertaining whether certain alleged tax liens were just or not. In tracing back the title we were not satisfied with the description of the ground in one of the deeds of conveyance. Lincoln, to settle the matter, took his surveying instruments and surveyed the ground himself. The result proved that Charles Matheney, a former grantor, had sold the land at so much per acre, but that in describing it he had made an error and conveyed more land than he received pay for. This land descended to our client, and Lincoln after a careful survey and calculation, decided that she ought to pay to Matheney's heirs the sum which he had shown was due them by reason of the erroneous conveyance. To this she entered stren- uous objections, but when assured that unless she consented to this act of plain justice we would drop the case, she finally, though with great reluctance, consented. She paid the required amount, and this we divided up into smaller sums proportioned to the number of heirs. Lincoln himself distributed these to the heirs, obtaining a receipt from each one.* * "Dear Herndon : "One morning, not long before Lincoln's nomination — a year perhaps — I was in your office and heard the following : Mr. 346 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. While Mr. Lincoln was no financier and had no propensity to acquire property, — no avarice of the get, — yet he had the capacity of retention, or the avarice of the keep. He never speculated in lands or anything else. In the days of land offices and "choice lots in a growing town" he had many opportunities to make safe ventures promising good returns, but he never availed himself of them. His brother lawyers were making good investments and lucky turns, some of them, Davis, for example, were rapidly becoming wealthy ; but Lincoln cared noth- ing for speculation ; in fact there was no ventursome spirit in him. His habits were very simple. He was not fastidious as to food or dress. His hat was brown, faded, and the nap usually worn or rubbed off. He wore a short cloak and sometimes a shawl. His coat and vest hung loosely on his gaunt frame, and his trousers were invariably too short. On the Lincoln, seated at the baize-covered table in the center of the office, listened attentively to a man who talked earnestly and in a low tone. After being thus engaged for some time Lincoln at length broke in, and I shall never forget his reply. 'Yes,' he said, 'we can doubtless gain your case for you ; we can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads ; we can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children and thereby get for you six hundred dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and her children as it does to you. You must remem- ber that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man ; we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way.' "Yours, "Lord/-' From undated MS., about 1866. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 347 circuit he carried in one hand a faded green umbrella, with "A. Lincoln" in large white cotton or muslin letters sewed on the inside. The knob was gone from the handle, and when closed a piece of cord was usually tied around it in the middle to keep it from flying open. In the other hand he carried a literal carpet-bag, in which were stored the few papers to be used in court, and undercloth- ing enough to last till his return to Springfield. He slept in a long, coarse, yellow flannel shirt, which reached half-way between his knees and ankles. It probably was not made to fit his bony figure as completely as Beau Brummel's shirt, and hence we can somewhat appreciate the sensation of a young lawyer who, on seeing him thus arrayed for the first time, observed afterwards that, "He was the ungodliest figure I ever saw." "He never complained of the food, bed, or lodg- ings. If every other fellow grumbled at the bill-of- fare which greeted us at many of the dingy tav- erns," says David Davis, "Lincoln said nothing." He was once presiding as judge in the absence of Davis, and the case before him was an action brought by a merchant against the father of a minor son for a suit of clothes sold to the son without parental authority. The real question was whether the clothes were necessary, and suited to the condition of the son's life. The father was a weatlhy farmer; the bill for the clothing was twenty-eight dollars. I happened in court just as Lincoln was rendering his decision. He ruled against the plea of necessity. "I have rarely in my 348 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. life," said he, "worn a suit of clothes costing twenty-eight dollars." "Several of us lawyers," remarked one of his col- leagues, "in the eastern end of the circuit annoyed Lincoln once while he was holding court for Davis by attempting to defend against a note to which there were many makers. We had no legal, but a good moral defense, but what we wanted most of all was to stave it off till the next term of court by one expedient or another. We bothered "the court" about it till late on Saturday, the day of adjourn- ment. He adjourned for supper with nothing left but this case to dispose of. After supper he heard our twaddle for nearly an hour, and then made this odd entry : 'L. D. Chaddon vs. J. D. Beasley et al. April Term, 1856. Champaign County Court. Plea in abatement by B. Z. Green, a defendant not served, filed Saturday at 11 o'clock A. M., April 24, 1856, stricken from the files by order of court. De- murrer to declaration, if there ever was one, over- ruled. Defendants who are served now, at 8 o'clock, P. M., of the last day of the term, ask to plead to the merits, which is denied by the court on the ground that the offer comes too late, and there- fore, as by nil dicet, judgment is rendered for Pl'ff. Clerk assess damages. A. Lincoln, Judge pro tern/ >: The lawyer who reads this singular entry will appreciate its oddity if no one else does. After making it one of the lawyers, on recovering his astonishment, ventured to enquire, "Well, Lincoln, * H. C. Whitney, MS., letter, Nov. 13, 1865. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 349 how can we get this case up again?" Lincoln eyed him quizzically a moment, and then answered, "You have all been so 'mighty smart about this case you can find out how to take it up again yourselves."* The same gentleman who furnishes this last inci- dent, and who was afterward a trusted friend of Mr. Lincoln, Henry C. Whitney, has described most happily the delights of a life on the circuit. A bit of it, referring to Lincoln, I apprehend, cannot be deemed out of place here. "In October, 1854, Abraham Lincoln," he relates, "drove into our town (Urbana) to attend court. He had the appearance of a rough, intelligent farmer, and his rude, home- made - buggy and raw-boned horse enforced this belief. I had met him for the first time in June of the same year. David Davis and Leonard Swett had just preceded him. The next morning he * "During my first attendance at court in Menard County," relates a lawyer who travelled the circuit with Lincoln, "some thirty young men had been indicted for playing cards, and Lin- coln and I were employed in their defense. The prosecuting attorney, in framing the indictments, alternately charged the defendants with playing a certain game of cards called 'seven- up,' and in the next bill charged them with playing cards at a certain game called 'old sledge.' Four defendants were indicted in each bilL The prosecutor, being entirely unacquainted with games at cards, did not know the fact that both 'seven-up' and 'old sledge' were one and the same. Upon the trial on the bills describing the game as 'seven-up' our witnesses would swear that the game played was 'old sledge,' and vice versa on the bills alleging the latter. The result was an acquittal in every case under the instructions of the Court. The prosecutor never found out the dodge until the trials were over, and immense fun and rejoicing were indulged in at the result." 350 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. started North, on the Illinois Central Railroad, and as he went in an old omnibus he played on a boy's harp all the way to the depot. I used to attend the Danville court, and while there, usually roomed with Lincoln and Davis. We stopped at McCor- mick's hotel, an old-fashioned frame country tavern. Jurors, counsel, prisoners, everybody ate at a long table. The judge, Lincoln, and I had the ladies' parlor fitted up with two beds. Lincoln, Swett, McWilliams, of Bloomington, Voorhees, of Coving- ton, Ind., O. L. Davis, Drake, Ward Lamon, Law- rence, Beckwith, and O. F. Harmon, of Danville, Whiteman, of Iroquois County, and Chandler, of Williamsport, Ind., constituted the bar. Lincoln, Davis, Swett, I, and others who came from the western part of the state would drive from Urbana. The distance was thirty-six miles. We sang and exchanged stories all the way. We had no hesi- tation in stopping at a farm-house and ordering them to kill and cook a chicken for dinner. By dark we reached Danville. Lamon would have whiskey in his office for the drinking ones, and those who indulged in petty gambling would get by themselves and play till late in the night. Lincoln, Davis, and a few local wits would spend the evening in Davis's room, talking politics, wisdom, and fun. Lincoln and Swett were the great lawyers, and Lincoln always wanted Swett in jury cases. We who stopped at the hotel would all breakfast together and frequently go out into the woods and hold court. We were of more consequence than a court and bar is now. The feelings were those of LIFE OF LINCOLN. 35 \ great fraternity in the bar, and if we desired to re- strict our circle it was no trouble for Davis to freeze out any disagreeable persons. Lincoln was fond of going all by himself to any little show or concert. I have known him to slip away and spend the entire evening at a little magic lantern show intended for children. A travelling concert company, calling themselves the 'Newhall Family,' were sure of drawing Lincoln. One of their number, Mrs. Hil- lis, a good singer, he used to tell us was the only man who ever seemed to exhibit any liking for him. I attended a negro-minstrel show in Chicago, where we heard Dixie sung. It was entirely new, and pleased him greatly. In court he was irrepres- sible and apparently inexhaustible in his fund of stories. Where in the world a man who had travelled so little and struggled amid the restric- tions of such limited surroundings could gather up such apt and unique yarns we never could guess. Davis appreciated Lincoln's talent in this direction, and was always ready to stop business to hear one of his stories. Lincoln was very bashful when in the presence of ladies. I remember once we were invited to take tea at a friend's house, and while in the parlor I was called to the front gate to see a client. When I returned, Lincoln, who had under- taken to entertain the ladies, was twisting and squirming in his chair, and as bashful as a school- boy. Everywhere, though we met a hard crowd at every court, and though things were free and easy, we were treated with great respect." Probably the most important lawsuit Lincoln 63< THE LIFE OF LINCOLN and I conducted was one in which we defended the Illinois Central Railroad in an action brought by McLean County, Illinois, in August, 1853, to recover taxes alleged to be due the county from the road. The Legislature had granted the road immunity from taxation, and this was a case intended to test the constitutionality of the law. The road sent a retainer fee of $250. In the lower court the case was decided in favor of the railroad. An appeal to the Supreme Court followed, and there it was argued twice, and finally decided in our favor. This last decision was rendered some time in 1855. Mr. Lincoln soon went to Chicago and presented our bill for legal services. We only asked for 00 more. The official to whom he was referred, — supposed to have been the superintendent George B. McClellan who afterwards became the eminent general. — looking at the bill expressed great sur- prise. "Why, sir,'' he exclaimed, "this is as much as Daniel Webster himself would have charged. We cannot allow such a claim." Stung by the re- buff, Lincoln withdrew the bill, and started for home. On the way he stopped at Bloomington. There he met Grant Goodrich. Archibald Williams, Norman B. Judd, O. H. Browning, and other attorneys, who. on learning of his modest charge for such valuable services rendered the railroad, induced him to increase the demand to $5,000, and to bring suit for that sum. This was done at once. On the trial six lawyers certified that the bill was reasonable, and judgment for that sum went by default. The judgment was promptly paid. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 353 Lincoln gave me my half, and much as we recated the avarice of great corporation-, we both thanked the Lord for letting the Illinois Central Railroad fall into our hand.-. In the summer of 1857 Lincoln was employed by one Manny, of Chicago, to defend him in an action brought by McCormick,*who was the inventor of the reaping machine, for infringement of patent. Lincoln had been recommended to Manny by E. B. Washburne, then a member of Congress from north- ern Illinois. The case was to be tried before Judge McLean at Cincinnati, in the Circuit Court of the United States. The counsel for McCormick was Reverdy Johnson. Edwin M. Stanton and George Harding, of Philadelphia, were associated on the other side with Lincoln. The latter came to Cin- cinnati a fe before the argument took place, and -topped at the house of a friend. "The ca-e one of great importance pecuniarily," relates a in Cincinnati, who was a member of the bar at the time, "and in the law questions involved. Reverdy Johnson represented the plaintiff. Mr. Lincoln had prepared himself with the gre-' care ; his ambition was up to speak in the case and to measure swords with the renowned lawyer from Baltimore. It was understood between his client and himself before his coming that Mr. Harding, of Philadelphia, was to be associated with him in the case, and was to make the 'mechanical argument.' * The case, McCormick vs. Mann] rted in 6 McLean's Rep., p. 539. t W. M. Dickson. 354 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. After reaching Cincinnati, Mr. Lincoln was a little surprised and annoyed to learn that his client had also associated with him Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, of Pittsburg, and a lawyer of our own bar, the reason assigned being that the importance of the case re- quired a man of the experience and power of Mr. Stanton to meet Mr. Johnson. The Cincinnati law- yer was appointed for his 'local influence.' These reasons did not remove the slight conveyed in the employment without consultation with him of this additional counsel. He keenly felt it, but acquiesced. The trial of the case came on; the counsel for defense met each morning for consultation. On one of these occasions one of the counsel moved that only two of them should speak in the case. This matter was also acquiesced in. It had always been understood that Mr. Harding was to speak to explain the mechanism of the reapers. So this motion excluded either Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Stanton, — which? By the custom of the bar, as between counsel of equal standing, and in the absence of any action of the client, the original counsel speaks. By this rule Mr. Lincoln had precedence. Mr. Stanton suggested to Mr. Lincoln to make the speech. Mr. Lincoln answered. 'No, you speak.' Mr. Stanton replied, T will/ and taking up his hat, said he would go and make preparation. Mr. Lin- coln acquiesced in this, but was greatly grieved and mortified ; he took but little more interes in the case, though remaining until the conclusion of the trial. He seemed to be greatly depressed, and gave evidence of that tendency to melancholy THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 355 which so marked his character. His parting on leaving the city cannot be forgotten. Cordially shaking the hand of his hostess he said : 'You have made my stay here most agreeable, and I am a thousand times obliged to you ; but in reply to your request for me to come again, I must say to you I never expect to be in Cincinnati again. I have nothing against the city, but things have so hap- pened here as to make it undesirable for me ever to return.' Lincoln felt that Stanton had not only been very discourteous to him, but had pur- posely ignored him in the case, and that he had received rather rude, if not unkind, treatment from all hands. Stanton, in his brusque and abrupt way, it is said, described him as a 'long, lank creature from Illinois, wearing a dirty linen duster for a coat, on the back of which the perspiration had splotched wide stains that resembled a map of the continent. Mr. Lincoln," adds Mr. Dickson, "remained in Cin- cinnati about a week, moving freely around, yet not twenty men knew him personally or knew he was here ; not a hundred would have known who he was had his name been given to them. He came with the fond hope of making fame in a forensic contest with Reverdy Johnson. He was pushed aside, humilated and mortified. He attached to the innocent city the displeasure that filled his bosom, and shook its dust from his feet." On his return to Springfield he was somewhat reti- cent regarding the trial, and, contrary to his custom, communicated to his associates at the bar but few of its incidents. He told me that he had been 356 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. ''roughly handled by that man Stanton"; that he overheard the latter from an adjoining room, while the door was slightly ajar, referring to Lin- coln, inquire of another, "Where did that long- armed creature come from, and what can he expect to do in this case?" During the trial Lincoln formed a poor opinion of Judge McLean. He characterized him as an "old granny," with consid- erable vigor of mind, but no perception at all. "If you were to point your finger at him," he put it, "and a darning needle at the same time he never would know which was the sharpest." As Lincoln grew into public favor and achieved such marked success in the profession, half the bar of Springfield began to be envious of his growing popularity. I believe there is less jealousy and bit- ter feeling among lawyers than professional men of any other class ; but it should be borne in mind that in that early day a portion of the bar in every county seat, if not a majority of the lawyers every- where, were politicians. Stuart frequently differed from Lincoln on political questions, and was full of envy. Likewise those who coincided with Lincoln in his political views were disturbed in the same way. Even Logan was not wholly free from the degrading passion. But in this respect Lincoln suffered no more than other great characters who preceded him in the world's history. That which Lincoln's adversaries in a lawsuit feared most of all was his apparent disregard of custom or professional propriety in managing a case before a jury. He brushed aside all rules, and THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 357 very often resorted to some strange and strategic performance which invariably broke his opponent down or exercised some peculiar influence over the jury. Hence the other side in a case were in con- stant fear of one of his dramatic strokes, or trem- bled lest he should "ring in" some ingeniously planned interruption not on the programme. In a case where Judge Logan — always earnest and grave — opposed him, Lincoln created no little merriment by his reference to Logan's style of dress. He carried the surprise in store for the latter, till he reached his turn before the jury. Addressing them, he said : "Gentlemen, you must be careful and not permit yourselves to be overcome by the eloquence of counsel for the defense. Judge Logan. I know, is an effective lawyer. I have met him too often to doubt that ; but shrewd and careful though he be, still he is sometimes wrong. Since this trial has begun I have discovered that, with all his caution and fastidiousness, he hasn't knowl- edge enough to put his shirt on right." Logan turned red as crimson, but sure enough, Lincoln was correct, for the former had donned a new shirt, and by mistake had drawn it over his head with the pleated bosom behind. The general laugh which followed destroyed the effect of Logan's eloquence over the jury — the very point at which Lincoln aimed. The trial of William Armstrong* for the murder * This incident in Lincoln's career has been most happily uti- lized by Dr. Edward Eg-gleston in his story "The Graysons," recently published in the Century Magazine. 358 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. of James P. Metzger, in May, 1858, at Beardstown, Illinois, in which Lincoln secured the acquittal of the defendant, was one of the gratifying triumphs in his career as a lawyer. Lincoln's defense, wherein he floored the principal prosecuting witness, who had testified positively to seeing the fatal blow struck in the moonlight, by showing from an almanac that the moon had set, was not more convincing than his eloquent and irresistible appeal in his client's favor. The latter's mother, old Hannah Armstrong, the friend of his youth, had solicited him to defend her son. "He told the jury," relates the prosecuting attorney, "of his once being a poor, friendless boy; that Armstrong's parents took him into their house, fed and clothed him, and gave him a home. There were tears in his eyes as he spoke. The sight of his tall, quivering frame, and the par- ticulars of the story he so pathetically told, moved the jury to tears also, and they forgot the guilt of the defendant in their admiration of his advocate. It was the most touching scene I ever witnessed."* Before passing it may be well to listen to the hum- ble tribute of old Hannah Armstrong, the defend- ant's mother: "Lincoln had said to me, 'Hannah, your son will be cleared before sundown.' I left the court-room, and they came and told me that my son was cleared and a free man. I went up to the court-house. The jury shook hands with me ; so did the judge and Lincoln; tears streamed down Lincoln's eyes .... After the trial I asked him * J. Henry Shaw, letter, Aug. 22, 1866, MS. THE LIFE OF LIXCOLN. 359 what his fee would be ; told him I was poor. 'Why, Hannah,' he said, 'I sha'n't charge you a cent, and anything else I can do for you, will do it willingly and without charge.' He afterwards wrote to me about a piece of land which certain men were trying to get from me, and said : 'Hannah, they can't get your land. Let them try it in the Cir- cuit Court, and then you appeal it ; bring it to the Supreme Court and I and Herndon will attend to it for nothing.' "* The last suit of any importance in which Lin- coln was personally engaged, was known as the Johnson sand-bar case. It involved the title to certain lands, the accretion on the shores of Lake Michigan, in or near Chicago. It was tried in the United States Circuit Court at Chicago in April and May, 1860. During the trial, the Court — Judge Drummond — and all the counsel on both sides dined at the residence of Isaac N. Arnold, afterwards a member of Congress. "Douglas and Lincoln," re- lates Mr. Arnold, "were at the time both candi- dates for the nomination for President. There were active and ardent political friends of each at the table, and when the sentiment was proposed, 'May Illinois furnish the next President,' it was drank with enthusiasm by the friends of both Lin- coln and Douglas. "f I could fill this volume with reminiscences of Lin- coln's career as a lawyer, but lest the reader should tire of what must savor in many cases of monotony * From statement, Nov. 24, 1865. t Arnold's "Lincoln," p. 90. .360 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. it is best to move on. I have made this portion of the book rather full; but as Lincoln's individuality and peculiarities were more marked in the law office and court-room than anywhere else it will play its part in making up the picture of the man. Enough has been told to show how, in the face of adverse fortune and the lack of early training and by force of his indomitable will and self-confidence, he gained such ascendency among the lawyers of Illinois. The reader is enabled thereby to understand the philosophy of his growth. But now another field is preparing to claim him. There will soon be great need for his clear reason, masterly mind and heroic devotion to principle. The distant mutterings of an approaching contest are driving scattered factions into a union of senti- ment and action. As the phalanxes of warriors are preparing for action, amid the rattle of forensic musketry, Lincoln, their courageous leader, equipped for battle, springs into view. CHAPTER XII. While Lincoln in a certain sense was buried in the law from the time his career in Congress closed till, to use his own words, "the repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise aroused him again," yet he was a careful student of his times and kept abreast of the many and varied movements in politics. He was generally on the Whig electoral tickets, and made himself heard during each successive canvas,* * In the campaign of 1852, when Pierce was the Democratic candidate for President, Doug-las made speeches for him in al- most every State in the Union. His "key-note" was sounded at Richmond. Va. Lincoln, whose reputation was limited by the boundaries of Illinois, was invited by the Scott Club of Spring- field to answer it, but his soul and heart were not in the under- taking. He had not yet been awakened, and, considering it entire, the speech was a poor effort. Another has truthfully said of it, "If it was distinguished by one quality above another it was by its attempts at humor, and all those attempts were strained and affected, as well as very coarse. He displayed a jealous and petulant temper from the first to the last, wholly beneath the dignity of the occasion and the importance of the topic. Considered as a whole it may be said that none of his public performances was more unworthy of its really noble author than this one. The closing paragraph will serve as a fair sample of the entire speech: "Let us stand by our candi- date [Gen. Scott] as faithfully as he has always stood by our country, and I much doubt if we do not perceive a slight abate- ment of Judge Douglas's confidence in Providence as well as the people. I suspect that confidence is not more firmly fixed with the Judge than it was with the old woman whose horse 361 362 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. but he seemed to have lost that zealous interest in politics which characterized his earlier days. He plodded on unaware of, and seemingly without ambi- tion for, the great distinction that lay in store for him. John T. Stuart relates* that, as he and Lin- coln were returning from the court in Tazewell county in 1850, and were nearing the little town of Dillon, they engaged in a discussion of the polit- ical situation. "As we were coming down the hill," are Stuart's words, "I said, 'Lincoln, the time is coming when we shall have to be all either Aboli- tionists or Democrats.' He thought a moment and then answered, ruefully and emphatically, 'When that time comes my mind is made up, for I believe the slavery question can never be successfully compromised.' I responded with equal emphasis, 'My mind is made up too.' " Thus it was with Lin- coln. But he was too slow to suit the impetuous demand of the few pronounced Abolitionists whom he met in his daily walks. The sentiment of the majority in Springfield tended in the other direc- tion, and thus environed, Lincoln lay down like the sleeping lion. The future would yet arouse him. At that time I was an ardent Abolitionist in senti- ment. I used to warn Lincoln against his apparent conservatism when the needs of the hour were so great; but his only answer would be, 'Billy, you're ran away with her in a buggy. She said she trusted in Provi- dence till the 'britchen' broke, and then she didn't know what on 'airth' to do. The chance is the Judge will see the 'brit- chen' broke, and then he can at his leisure bewail the fate of Locofocoism as the victim of misplaced confidence." * Statement, J. T. S., MS., July 21, 1865. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 353 too rampant and spontaneous.' I was in corre- spondence with Sumner, Greely, Phillips, and Garri- son, and was thus thoroughly imbued with all the rancor drawn from such strong anti-slavery sources. I adhered to Lincoln, relying on the final outcome of his sense of justice and right. Every time a good speech on the great issue was made I sent for it. Hence you could find on my table the latest utter- ances of Giddings, Phillips, Sumner, Seward, and one whom I considered grander than all the others — Theodore Parker. Lincoln and I took such papers as the Chicago Tribune, New York Tribune, Anti-Slavery Standard, Emancipator, and National Era. On the other side of the question we took the Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer. I also bought a book called "Sociology," written by one Fitzhugh, which defended and justified slavery in every conceivable way. In addition I pur- chased all the leading histories of the slavery move- ment, and other works which treated on that subject. Lincoln himself never bought many books, but he and I both read those I have named. After read- ing them we would discuss the questions they touched upon and the ideas they suggested, from our different points of view. I was never conscious of having made much of an impression on Mr. Lin- coln, nor do I believe I ever changed his views. I will go further and say, that, from the profound nature of his conclusions and the labored method by which he arrived at them, no man is entitled to the credit of having either changed or greatly modi- fied them. I remember once, after having read one 364 THE L1FE 0F LINCOLN. of Theodore Parker's sermons on slavery, saying to Mr. Lincoln substantially this : "I have always noticed that ill-gotten wealth does no man any good. This is as true of nations as individuals. I believe that all the ill-gotten gain wrenched by us from the negro through his enslavement will eventually be taken from us, and we will be set back where we began." Lincoln thought my prophecy rather dire- ful. He doubted seriously if either of us would live to see the righting of so great a wrong; but years after, when writing his second Inaugural ad- dress, he endorsed the idea. Clothing it in the most beautiful language, he says: "Yet if God wills that it [the war] continue till all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of un- requited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " The passage in May, 1854, of the Kansas- Nebraska bill swept out of sight the Missouri Com- promise and the Compromise measures of 1850. This bill, designed and carried through by Douglas, was regarded by him as the masterpiece of all his varied achievements in legislation. It served to prove more clearly than anything he had ever before done his flexibility and want of political conscience. Although in years gone before he had invoked the vengeance of Heaven on the ruthless hand that should dare to disturb the sanctity of the compact of 1821, yet now he was the arrogant and audacious THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 365 leader in the very work he had so heartily con- demned. When we consider the bill and the unfor- tunate results which followed it in the border States we are irresistibly led to conclude that it was, all things considered, a great public wrong and a most lamentable piece of political jugglery. The stump speech which Thomas H. Benton charged that Douglas had "injected into the belly of the bill" contains all there was of Popular Sovereignty — "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States," an argument which, using Lincoln's words, "amounts to this: That if any one man chooses to enslave another no third man shall be allowed to object." The widespread feeling the passage of this law aroused everywhere over the Union is a matter of general history. It stirred up in New England the latent hostility to the aggression of slavery; it stimulated to extraordinary endeavors the derided Abolitionists, arming them with new weapons ; it sounded the death-knell of the gallant old Whig party ; it drove together strange, discordant elements it readiness to fight a common enemy ; it brought to the forefront a leader in the person of Lincoln. The revolt of Cook, Judd, and Palmer, all young and progressive, from the Democratic majority in the Legislature was the first sign of discontent in Illinois. The rude and partly hostile reception of 366 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. Douglas, on his arrival in Chicago, did not in any degree tend to allay the feeling of disapproval so general in its manifestation. The warriors, young and old, removed their armor from the walls, and began preparations for the impending conflict. Lincoln had made a few speeches in aid of Scott during the campaign of 1852, but they were efforts entirely unworthy of the man. Now, however, a live issue was presented to him. No one realized this sooner than he. In the office discussions he grew bolder in his utterances. He insisted that the social and political difference between slavery and freedom was becoming more marked; that one must overcome the other; and that postponing the struggle between them would only make it the more deadly in the end. "The day of compro- mise," he still contended, "has passed. These two great ideas have been kept apart only by the most artful means. They are like two wild beasts in sight of each other, but chained and held apart. Some day these deadly antagonists will one or the other break their bonds, and then the question will be settled." In a conversation with a fellow- lawyer* he said of slavery: "It is the most glittering, ostentatious, and displaying property in the world, and now, if a young man goes courting, the only inquiry is how many negroes he or his lady-love owns. The love for slave property is swallowing up every other mercenary possession. Slavery is a great and crying injustice — an enormous national crime." At another time he made the * Joseph Gillespie, MS. letter, June 9, '66. THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 367 observation that it was "singular that the courts would hold that a man never lost his right to his property that had been stolen from him, but that he instantly lost his right to himself if he was stolen." It is useless to add more evidence — for it could be piled mountain high — showing that at the very outset Mr. Lincoln was sound to the core on the injustice and crime of human slavery. After a brief rest at his home in Chicago Mr. Douglas betook himself to the country, and in Oc- tober, during the week of the State Fair, we find him in Springfield. On Tuesday he made a speech in the State House which, in view of the hostile attitude of some of his own party friends, was a labored defense of his position. It was full of inge- nious sophistry and skilful argument. An unprec- edented concourse of- people had gathered from all parts of the State, and Douglas, fresh from the halls of Congress, was the lion of the hour. On the fol- lowing day Mr. Lincoln, as the champion of the opponents of Popular Sovereignty, was selected to represent those who disagreed with the new legisla- tion, and to answer Douglas. His speech encouraged his friends no less than it startled his enemies. At this time I was zealously interested in the new movement, and not less so in Lincoln. I frequently wrote the editorials in the Springfield Journal, the editor, Simeon Francis, giving to Lincoln and to me the utmost liberty in that direction. Occasionally Lincoln would write out matter for publication, but I believe I availed myself of the privilege oftener than he. The editorial in the issue containing the 368 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. speeches of Lincoln and Douglas on this occasion was my own, and while in description it may seem rather strongly imbued with youthful enthusiasm, yet on reading it in maturer years I am still inclined to believe it reasonably faithful to the facts and the situation. "The anti-Nebraska speech of Mr. Lincoln," says the article, "was the profoundest in our opinion that he has made in his whole life. He felt upon his soul the truths burn which' he uttered, and all present felt that he was true to his own soul. His feelings once or twice swelled within, and came near stifling utterance. He quivered with emotion. The whole house was as still as death. He attacked the Nebraska bill with unusual warmth and energy; and all felt that a man of strength was its enemy, and that he intended to blast it if he could by strong and manly efforts. He was most successful, and the house approved the glorious triumph of truth by loud and continued huzzas. Women waved their white handkerchiefs in token of wo- man's silent but heartfelt assent. Douglas felt the sting; the animal within him was roused be- cause he frequently interrupted Mr. Lincoln. His friends felt that he was crushed by Lincoln's pow- erful argument, manly logic, and illustrations from nature around us. The Nebraska bill was shivered, and like a tree of the forest was torn and rent asun- der by the hot bolts of truth. Mr. Lincoln exhib- ited Douglas in all the attitudes he could be placed, in a friendly debate. He exhibited the bill in all its aspects to show its humbuggery and falsehood, and, when thus torn to rags, cut into slips, held up THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 369 to the gaze of the vast crowd, a kind of scorn and mockery was visible upon the face of the crowd and upon the lips of their most eloquent speaker. At the conclusion of this speech every man and child felt that it was unanswerable. He took the heart captive and broke like a sun over the understand- ing." Anent the subject of editorial writing it may not be inappropriate to relate that Lincoln and I both kept on furnishing political matter of many varieties for the Springfield Journal until 1860. Many of the editorials that I wrote were intended directly or indirectly to promote the interest of Lincoln. I wrote one on the advisability of annexing Cuba to the United States, taking the rather advanced ground that slavery would be abolished in Cuba before it would in this country — a position which aroused no little controversy with other papers. One little incident occurs to me in this connection which may not be without interest to newspaper men. A newspaper had been started in Springfield called the Conservative, which, it was believed, was being run in the interest of the Democratic party. While pretending to support Fillmore it was kept alive by Buchanan men and other kindred spirits, who were somewhat pro-slavery in their views. The thing was damaging Lincoln and the friends of freedom more than an avowed Democratic paper could. The editor, an easy, good-natured fellow, simply placed in charge to execute the will of those who gave the paper its financial backing, was a good friend of mine, and by means of this friendship I was always 370 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. well informed of matters in the Conservative edi- torial room. One day I read in the Richmond Enquirer an article endorsing slavery, and arguing that from principle the enslavement of either whites or blacks was justifiable and right. I showed it to Lincoln, who remarked that it was "rather rank doctrine for Northern Democrats to endorse. I should like to see," he said, with emphasis, "some of these Illinois newspapers champion that." I told him if he would only wait and keep his own counsel I would have a pro-slavery organ in Spring- field publish that very article. He doubted it, but when I told him how it was to be done he laughed and said, "Go in." I cut the slip out and succeeded in getting it in the paper named. Of course it was a trick, but it acted admirably. Its appearance in the new organ, although without comment, almost ruined that valuable journal, and my good-natured friend the editor was nearly overcome by the denunciation of those who were responsible for the organ's existence. My connection, and Lincoln's too, — for he endorsed the trick, — with the publica- tion of the condemned article was eventually dis- covered, and we were thereafter effectually pre- vented from getting another line in the paper. The anti-slavery people quoted the article as hav- ing been endorsed by a Demoratic newspaper in Springfield, and Linoln himself used it with telling effect. He joined in the popular denunciation. | expressing great astonishment that such a senti- ment could find lodgment in any paper in Illinois, THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 37 j_ although he knew full well how the whole thing had been carried through. During the remainder of the State-Fair week, speeches were made by Lyman Trumbull, Sidney Breese, E. D. Taylor, and John Calhoun, none of which unfortunately have been preserved. Among those who mingled in the crowd and listened to them was Owen Lovejoy, a radical, fiery, brave, fanatical man, it may be, but one full of the virus of Abolitionism. I had been thoroughly inoculated with the latter myself, and so had many others, who helped to swell the throng. The Nebraska move- ment had kindled anew the old zeal, and inspired us with renewed confidence to begin the crusade. As many of us as could, assembled together to organ- ize for the campaign before us. As soon therefore as Lincoln finished his speech in the hall of the House of Representatives, Lovejoy, moving forward from the crowd, announced a meeting in the same place that evening of all the friends of Freedom. That of course meant the Abolitionists with whom I had been in conference all the day. Their plan had been to induce Mr. Lincoln to speak for them at their meeting. Strong as I was in the faith, yet I doubted the propriety of Lincoln's taking any stand yet. As I viewed it, he was ambitious to climb to the United States Senate, and on grounds of policy it would not do for him to occupy at that time such advanced ground as we were taking. On the other hand, it was equally as dangerous to refuse a speech for the Abolitionists. I did not know how he felt on the subject, but on learning 372 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. that Love joy intended to approach him with an invitation, I hunted up Lincoln and urged him to avoid meeting the enthusiastic champion of Aboli- tionism. "Go home at once," I said. "Take Bob with you and drive somewhere into the country and stay till this thing is over." Whether my admoni- tion and reasoning moved him or not I do not know, but it only remains to state that under pre- tence of having business in Tazewell county he drove out of town in his buggy, and did not return till the apostles of Abolitionism had separated and gone to their homes.* I have always believed this little arrangement — it would dignify it too much to call it a plan — saved Lincoln. If he had endorsed the resolutions passed at the meeting, or spoken sim- ply in favor of freedom that night, he would have been identified with all the rancor and extremes of Abolitionism. If, on the contrary, he had been invited to join them, and then had refused to take a position as advanced as theirs, he would have lost their support. In either event he was in great dan- ger; and so he who was aspiring to succeed his old rival, James Shields, in the United States Senate was forced to avoid the issue by driving hastily in his one horse buggy to the court in Tazewell county. A singular coincidence suggests itself in the fact that, twelve years before, James Shields and a friend drove hastily in the same direction, and destined for the same point, to force Lincoln to take issue in another and entirely different matter. * See Lincoln's Speech, Joint Debate, Ottawa, Ills.. Aug-. 20, 1858. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 373 By request of party friends Lincoln was induced to follow after Douglas and, at the various places where the latter had appointments to speak, reply to him. On the 16th of October they met at Peoria, where Douglas enjoyed the advantages of an "open and close." Lincoln made an effec- tive speech, which he wrote out and furnished to the Sangamon Journal for publication, and which can be found among his public utterances. His party friends in Springfield and elsewhere, who had urged him to push after Douglas till he cried, "enough," were surprised a few days after the Peoria debate to find him at home, with the information that by an agreement with the latter they were both to return home and speak no more during the cam- paign. Judge of his astonishment a few days later to find that his rival, instead of going direct to his home in Chicago, had stopped at Princeton and violated his express agreement by making a speech there ! Lincoln was much displeased at this action of Douglas, which tended to convince him that the lat- ter was really a man devoid of fixed political mor- als. I remember his explanation in our office made to me, William Butler, William Jayne, Ben. F. Irwin, and other friends, to account for his early withdrawal from the stump. After the Peoria debate Douglas approached him and flattered him by say- ing that he was giving him more trouble on the territorial and slaver}' questions than all the United States Senate, and he therefore proposed to him that both should abandon the field and return to their homes. Now Lincoln could never refuse a 374 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. polite request — one in which no principle was involved. I have heard him say, "It's a for- tunate thing I wasn't born a woman, for I cannot refuse anything, it seems." He therefore consented to the cessation of debate proposed by Douglas, and the next day both went to the town of Lacon, where they had been billed for speeches. Their agree- ment was kept from their friends, and both declined to speak — Douglas, on the ground of hoarseness, and Lincoln gallantly refusing to take advantage of "Judge Douglas's indisposition." Here they sep- arated, Lincoln going directly home, and Douglas, as before related, stopping at Princeton and collid- ing in debate with Owen Love joy. Upon being charged afterwards with his breech of agreement Douglas responded that Love joy "bantered and badgered" him so persistently he could not grace- fully resist the encounter. The whole thing thor- oughly displeased Lincoln.* During this campaign Lincoln was nominated and elected to the Legislature. This was done in the face of his unwillingness and over his protest. On * In a letter from Princeton, 111., March 15, 1866, John H. Bryant, brother of the poet William Cullen Bryant, writes : "I have succeeded in finding an old file of our Princeton papers, from which I learn that Mr. Douglas spoke here on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 1854. This fixes the date. I recollect that he staid at Tiskilwa, six miles south of this, the night before, and a num- ber of our Democrats went down the next morning and escorted him to this place. Douglas spoke first one half-hour and was answered by Dovejoy one half-hour, when Douglas talked till dark, giving no opportunity for reply. 'Tours truly, "John H. Bryant." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 375 the ticket with him was Judge Logan. Both were elected by a majority of about 600 votes. Lincoln, being ambitious to reach the United States Senate, and warmly encouraged in his aspirations by his wife, resigned his seat in the Legislature in order that he might the more easily be elected to succeed his old rival James Shields, who was then one of the senators from Illinois. His canvass for that exalted office was marked by his character- istic activity and vigilance. During the anxious moments that intervened between the general elec- tion and the assembling of the Legislature he slept, like Napoleon, with one eye open. While attending court at Clinton on the 11th of November, a few days after the election, he wrote to a party friend in the town of Paris: "I have a suspicion that a Whig has been elected to the Legislature from Edgar. If this is not so, why then, 'nix cum arous/ but if it is so, then could you not make a mark with him for me for U. S. Senator? I really have some chance. Please write me at Springfield giving me the names, post-offices, and political positions of your Repre- sentative and Senator, whoever they may be. Let this be confidential."* That man who thinks Lincoln calmly sat down and gathered his robes about him, waiting for the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowl- edge of Lincoln. He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest. The vicissitudes of a * Robert Mosely, November 11, 1855, MS. 3/6 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. political campaign brought into play all his tact and management and developed to its fullest extent his latent industry. In common with other politicians he never overlooked a newspaper man who had it in his power to say a good or bad thing of him. The press of that day was not so powerful an institution as now, but ambitious politicians courted the favor of a newspaper man with as much zeal as the same class of men have done in later days. I remember a letter Lincoln once wrote to the editor of an obscure little country newspaper in southern Illinois in which he warms up to him in the following style.* "Friend Harding: I have been reading your paper for three or four years and have paid you nothing for it." He then encloses ten dollars and adminishes the editor with innocent complacency : "Put it into your pocket, saying nothing further about it." Very soon thereafter, he prepared an article on. political matters and sent it to the rural journalist, requesting its publication in the editorial columns of his "valued paper," but the latter, having followed Lincoln's directions and stowed the ten dollars away in his pocket, and alive to the importance of his journal's influence, declined, "because," he said, "I long ago made it a rule to publish nothing as edito- rial matter not written by himself." Lincoln read the editor's answer to me. Although the laugh was on Lincoln he enjoyed the joke heartily. "That editor," he said, "has a rather lofty but proper conception of true journalism." * Jacob Harding. May 25. 1855, MS. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 377 mwhile the Legislature had convened and the Senatorial question came on for solution. The history of this contest is generally understood, and the world has repeatedly been told how Lincoln was led to expect the place and would have won but for the apostasy of the five anti-Nebraska men of Democratic antecedents who clung to and finally forced the election of Lyman Trumbull. The student of history in after years will be taught to rever the name of Lincoln for his exceeding magnanimity in inducting his friends to abandon him at the critical period and save Trumbull, while he himself disappeared beneath the waves of defeat. * This frustration of Lincoln's ambition had a * "After a number of ballots — Judd of Cook, Cook of La Salle. Palmer of Macoupin, and Allen and Baker of Madison voting for Trumbull — I asked Mr. Lincoln what he would advise us to do. He answered, 'Go for Trumbull by all means.' We under- stood the case to be that Shields was to be run by the Demo- crats at first and then to be dropped, and Joel A. Matteson put up ; and it was calculated that certain of our men who had been elected on the 'Free Soil' issue would vote for him after they had acted with us long- enough to satisfy their consciences and constituents. Our object was to force an election before they got through with their programme. We were savagely op- posed to Matteson, and so was Mr. Lincoln, who said that if we did not drop in and unite upon Trumbull the five men above- named would go for Matteson and elect him, which would be an everlasting disgrace to the State. We reluctantly complied ; went to Trumbull and elected him. I remember that Judge S. T. Logan gave up Lincoln with great reluctance. He begged hard to try him on one or two ballots more, but Mr. Lincoln urged us not to risk it longer. I never saw the latter more earnest and decided. He congratulated Trumbull warmly, al- though of course greatly disappointed and mortified at his own want of success." — Joseph Gillespie, letter, September 19. 1866, MS. 378 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. marked effect on his political views. It was plain to him now that the ''irrepressible conflict" was not far ahead. With the strengthening of his faith in a just cause so long held in abeyance he became more defiant each day. But in the very nature of things he dared not be as bold and outspoken as I. With him every word and sentence had to be weighed and its effects calculated, before being uttered : but with me that operation had to be reversed if done at all. An incident that occurred about this time will show how his views were broad- ening. Some time after the election of Trumbull a young negro, the son of a colored woman in Spring- field known as Polly, went from his home to St. Louis and there hired as a hand on a lower Missis- sippi boat, — for what special service, I do not recol- lect, — arriving in New Orleans without what were known as free papers. Though born free he was subjected to the tyranny of the "black code," all the more stringent because of the recent utterances of the Abolitionists in the North, and was kept in prison until his boat had left. Then, as no one was especially interested in him, he was forgotten. After a certain length of time established by law, he would inevitably have been sold into slavery to defray prison expenses had not Lincoln and I interposed our aid. The mother came to us with the story of the wrong done her son and induced us to interfere in her be- half. We went first to see the Governor of Illinois, who, after patient and thorough examination of the law, responded that he had no right or power to interfere. Recourse was then had to the Governor THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 379 of Louisiana, who responded in like manner. We were sorely perplexed. A second interview with the Governor of Illinois resulting in nothing favorable Lincoln rose from his chair, hat in hand, and ex- claimed with some emphasis: "By God, Governor, I'll make the ground in this country too hot for the foot of a slave, whether you have the legal power to secure the release of this boy or not." Having ex- hausted all legal means to recover the negro we dropped our relation as lawyers to the case. Lincoln drew up a subscription-list, which 1 circulated, col- lecting funds enough to purchase the young man's liberty. The money we sent to Col. A. P. Fields, a friend of ours in New Orleans, who applied it as directed, and it restored the prisoner to his over- joyed mother. The political history of the country, commencing in 1854 and continuing until the outbreak of the Rebellion, furnishes the student a constant succes- sion of stirring and sometimes bloody scenes. No sooner had Lincoln emerged from the Senatorial contest in February, 1855, and absorbed himself m the law, than the outrages on the borders of Mis- souri and Kansas began to arrest public attention. The stories of raids, election frauds, murders, and other crimes were moving eastward with marked ra- pidity. These outbursts of frontier lawlessness, led and sanctioned by the avowed pro-slavery element, were not only stirring up the Abolitionists to fever heat, but touching the hearts of humanity in general. tin Illinois an association was formed to aid the cause \of "Free-Soil" men in Kansas. In the meetings of 380 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. these bands the Abolitionists of course took the most prominent part. At Springfield we were en- ergetic, vigilant, almost revolutionary. We recom- mended the employment of any means, however desperate, to promote and defend the cause of free- dom. At one of these meetings Lincoln was called on for a speech. He responded to the request, counselling moderation and less bitterness in deal- ing with the situation before us. We were belligerent in tone, and clearly out of patience with the Government. Lincoln opposed the notion of coercive measures with the possibility of resulting bloodshed, advising us to eschew resort to the bullet. "You can better succeed," he declared, "with the ballot. You can peaceably then redeem the Gov- ernment and preserve the liberties of mankind through your votes and voice and moral influence. .... Let there be peace. Revolutionize through the ballot box, and restore the Government once more to the affections and hearts of men by making it express, as it was intended to do, the highest spirit of justice and liberty. Your attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of Kansas by force is criminal and wicked ; and all your feeble attempts will be follies and end in bringing sorrow on your heads and ruin the cause you would freely die to preserve!" These judicious words of counsel, while they reduced somewhat our ardor and our desperation, only placed before us in their real colors the grave features of the situation. We raised a neat sum of money, Lincoln showing his sincerity by joining in the sub- scription, and forwarded it to our friends in Kansas. THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 38 ]_ The Whig party, having accomplished its mission in the political world, was now on the eve of a great break-up. Lincoln realized this and, though pro- verbially slow in his movements, prepared to find a firm footing when the great rush of waters should come and the maddening freshet sweep former landmarks out of sight. Of the strongest signifi- cance in this connection is a letter written by him at this juncture to an old friend in Kentucky,* who called to his attention their differences of views on the wrong of slavery. Speaking of his observation of the treatment of the slaves, he says: "I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down and caught and carried back to their unrequited toils ; but I bite my lips and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had rather a tedious low-water trip on a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me ; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio or any slave border. It is not fair for you to assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me mis- erable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I do oppose the extension of slavery because my judgment and feel- * Letter to Joshua F. Speed, August 24, 1855, MS. 382 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. ing so prompt me ; and I am under no obligations to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, differ we must." Finding himself drifting about with the disorgan- ized elements that floated together after the angry politicial waters had subsided, it became apparent to Lincoln that if he expected to figure as a leader he must take a stand himself. Mere hatred of slavery and opposition to the injustice of the Kansas-Ne- braska legislation were not all that were required of him. He must be a Democrat, Know-Nothing, Abolitionist, or Republican, or forever float about in the great political sea without compass, rudder, or sail. At length he declared himself. Believing the times were ripe for more advanced movements, in the spring of 1856 I drew up a paper for the friends of freedom to sign, calling a county convention in Springfield to select delegates for the forthcoming Republican State convention in Bloomington. The paper was freely circulated and generously signed. Lincoln was absent at the time and, believing I knew what his "feeling and judgment" on the vital questions of the hour were, I took the liberty to sign his name to the call. The whole was then pub- lished in the Springfield Journal. No sooner had it appeared than John T. Stuart, who, with others, w r as endeavoring to retard Lincoln in his advanced movements, rushed into the office and excitedly asked it "Lincoln had signed the Abo- lition call in the Journal?" I answered in the neg- ative, adding that I had signed his name myself. To the question, "Did Lincoln authorize you to THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 383 sign it?" I returned an emphatic "No." "Then," exclaimed the startled and indignant Stuart, "you have ruined him." But I was by no means alarmed at what others deemed inconsiderate and hasty action. I thought I understood Lincoln thoroughly, but in order to vindicate myself if assailed I imme- diately sat down, after Stuart had rushed out of the office, and wrote Lincoln, who was then in Tazewell County attending court, a brief account of what I had done and how much stir it was creating in the ranks of his conservative friends. If he approved or disapproved my course I asked him to write or telegraph me at once. In a brief time came his answer : "All right ; go ahead. Will meet you — radicals and all." Stuart subsided, and the con- servative spirits who hovered around Springfield no longer held control of the political fortunes of Abraham Lincoln. The Republican party came into existence in Illinois as a party at Bloomington, May 29, 1856. The State convention of all opponents of anti- Nebraska legislation, referred to in a foregoing para- graph, had been set for that day. Judd, Yates, Trumbull, Swett, and Davis were there; so also was Love joy, who, like Otis of colonial fame, was a flame of fire. The firm of Lincoln and Herndon was rep- resented by both members in person. The gallant William H. Bissell, who had ridden at the head of the Second Illinois Regiment at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican war, was nominated as gov- ernor. The convention adopted a platform ringing with strong anti-Nebraska sentiments, and then and 384 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. there gave the Republican party its official christ- ening. The business of the convention being over, Mr. Lincoln, in response to repeated calls, came forward and delivered a speech of such earnest- ness and power that no one who heard it will ever forget the effect it produced. In referring to this speech some years ago I used the following rather graphic language : "I have heard or read all of Mr. Lincoln's great speeches, and I give it as my opinion that the Bloomington speech was the grand effort of this life. Heretofore he had simply argued the slavery question on grounds of policy, — the stateman's grounds, — never reach- ing the question of the radical and the eternal right. Now he was newly baptized and freshly born; he had the fervor of a new convert; the smothered flame broke out ; enthusiasm unusual to him blazed up ; his eyes were aglow with an inspir- ation : he felt justice; his heart was alive to the right ; his sympathies, remarkably deep for him, burst forth, and he stood before the throne of the eternal Right. His speech was full of fire and energy and force ; it was logic ; it was pathos ; it was enthusiasm ; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the divine fires of a soul mad- dened by the wrong ; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath. I attempted for about fifteen minutes as was usual with me then to take notes, but at the end of that time I threw pen and paper away and lived only in the inspiration of the hour. If Mr. Lincoln was six feet, four inches high usually, at Bloomington that day he was seven feet, THE LIFE OF LINCOLX. 385 and inspired at that. From that day to the day of his death he stood firm in the right. He felt his great cross, had his great idea, nursed it, kept it, taught it to others, in his fidelity bore witness of it to his death, and finally sealed it with his precious blood." The foregoing paragraph, used by me in a lecture in 1866, may to the average reader seem somewhat vivid in description, besides inclin- ing to extravagance in imagery, yet although more than twenty years have passed since it was written I have never seen the need of altering a single sen- tence. I still adhere to the substantial truthfulness of the scene as described. Unfortunately Lincoln's speech was never written out nor printed, and we are obliged to depend for its reproduction upon personal recollection. The Bloomington convention and the part Lin- coln took in it met no such hearty response in Springfield as we hoped would follow. It fell flat, and in Lincoln's case drove from him many per- sons who had heretofore been his warm political friends. A few days after our return we announced a meeting at the court-house to ratify the action of the Bloomington convention. After the usual efforts to draw a crowd, however, only three persons had temerity enough to attend. They were Lin- coln, the writer, and a courageous man named John Pain. Lincoln, in answer to the "deafening calls" for a speech, responded that the meeting was larger than he knew it would be, and that while he knew that he himself and his partner would attend he was not sure anyone else would, and yet another 386 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. man had been found brave enough to come out. "While all seems dead," he exhorted, "the age itself is not. It liveth as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and motion, the world does move nevertheless. Be hopeful, and now let us adjourn and appeal to the people." Not only in Springfield but everywhere else the founders of the Republican party — the apostles of freedom — went out to battle for the righteousness of their cause. Lincoln, having as usual been named as one of the Presidential electors, canvassed the State, making in all about fifty speeches. He was in demand everywhere. I have before me a pack- age of letters addressed to him, inviting him to speak at almost every county seat in the State. Yates wanted him to go to one section of the State, Washburne to another, and Trumbull still another; while every cross-roads politician and legislative aspirant wanted him "down in our country, where we need your help." Joshua R. Giddings wrote him words of encouragement. "You may start," said the valiant old Abolitionist in a letter from Peoria,* "on the one great issue of restoring Kansas and Nebraska to freedom, or rather of restoring the Missouri Compromise, and in this State no power on earth can withstand you on that issue." The demand for Lincoln was not confined to his own State. Indiana sent for him, Wisconsin, also, while Norman B. Judd and Ebenezer Peck, who were stumping Iowa, sent for him to come there. * J. R. Giddings, MS. letter, Sept. 18. 1855. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 387 A town committee invited him to come during "our Equestrian Fair on the 9th, 10th, and 11th," evidently anticipating a three days' siege. An enthusiastic officer in a neighboring town urges him: "Come to our place, because in you do our people place more confidence than in any other man. Men who do not read want the story told as you only can tell it. Others may make fine speeches, but it would not be 'Lincoln said so in his speech.' " A jubilant friend in Chicago writes : "Push on the column of freedom. Give the Buck Africans plenty to do in Egypt. The hour of our redemption draweth nigh. We are coming to Springfield with 20,000 majority!" A postmaster, acting under the courage of his convictions, implores him to visit his neighborhood. "The Democrats here," he insists, "are dyed in the wool. Thunder and lightning would not change their political complexion. I am postmaster here," he adds, confidentially, "for which reason I must ask you to keep this private, for if old Frank (President Pierce) were to hear of my support of Fremont I would get my walking papers sure enough." A settlement of Germans in southern Indiana asked to hear him ; and the president of a college, in an invi- tation to address the students under his charge, characterizes him as "one providentially raised up for a time like this, and even should defeat come in the contest, it would be some consolation to remem- ber we had Hector for a leader." And thus it was everywhere. Lincoln's impor- tance in the conduct of the campaign was appar- 388 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. ent to all, and his canvass was characterized by his usual vigor and effectiveness. He was especially noted for his attempt to break down the strength of Fillmore, who was nominated as a third party candidate and was expected to divide the Repub- lican vote. He tried to wean away Fillmore's adherents by an adroit and ingenious letter* sent * One of these letters which Lincoln wrote to counteract the Fillmore movement is still in my possession. As it is more or less characteristic I copy it entire : "Springfield, September 8, 1856. "Harrison- Maltby, Esq. "Dear Sir: "I understand you are a Fillmore man. Let me prove to you that every vote withheld from Fremont and given to Fillmore in this State actually lessens Fillmore's chance of being- President. "Suppose Buchanan gets all the slave States and Pennsylvania and any other one State besides ; then he is elected, no matter who gets all the rest. But suppose Fillmore gets the two slave States of Maryland and Kentucky, then Buchanan is not elected ; Fillmore goes into the House of Representatives and may be made President by a compromise. But suppose again Fill- more's friends throw away a few thousand votes on him in Indiana and Illinois ; it will inevitably give these States to Buchanan, which will more than compensate him for the loss of Maryland and Kentucky ; it will elect him, and leave Fill- more no chance in the House of Representatives or out of it. "This is as plain as adding up the weight of three small hogs. As Mr. Fillmore has no possible chance to carry Illinois for himself it is plainly to his interest to let Fremont take it and thus keep it out of the hands of Buchanan. Be not deceived. Buchanan is the hard horse to beat in this race. Let him have Illinois, and nothing can beat him ; and he will get Illi- nois if men persist in throwing away votes upon Mr. Fillmore. Does some one persuade you that Mr. Fillmore can carry Illi- nois? Nonsense! There are over seventy newspapers in Illi- nois opposing Buchanan, only three or four of which support Mr. Fillmore, all the rest going for Fremont. Are not these newspapers a fair index of the proportion of the votes? If not, tell me why. "Again, of these three or four Fillmore newspapers, two at least are supported in part by the Buchanan men, as I under- stand. Do not they know where the shoe pinches? They know the Fillmore movement helps them, and therefore they help it. "Do think these things over and then act according to your judgment. "Yours very truly, [Confidential.] "A. Lincoln." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 389 to those suspected of the latter's support, and marked confidential, in which he strove to show that in clinging to their candidate they were really aiding the election of Buchanan. But the effort proved unavailing, for in spite of all his arguments and appeals a large number of the Fillmore men "clung tenaciously to their leader, resulting in Bu- chanan's election. The vote in Illinois stood, Bu- chanan 105,344, Fremont 96,180, and Fillmore 37,451. At the same time Bissell was elected governor by a majority of 4,729 over W. A. Richardson, Democrat. After the heat and burden of the day Lincoln returned home, bearing with him more and greater laurels than ever. The signs of the times indicated, and the result of the canvass demonstrated, that he and he alone was powerful enough to meet the re- doubtable Little Giant in a greater conflict yet to follow. CHAPTER XIII. I shall be forced to omit much that happened during the interval between the election of Bu- chanan and the campaign of 1858, for the reason that it would not only swell this work to undue propor- tions, but be a mere repetition of what has been bet- ter told by other writers. It is proper to note in passing, however, that Mr. Lincoln's reputation as a political speaker was no longer bounded by the border lines of Illinios. It had passed beyond the Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi rivers, and while his pronounced stand on the slavery question had increased the circle of his admirers in the North it provoked a proportionate amount of execration in the South. He could not help the feeling that he was now the leading Republican in his State, and he was therefore more or less jealous of his prerogative. Formidable in debate, plain in speech, without pre- tence of literary acquirements, he was none the less self-reliant. He already envied the ascendancy and domination Douglas exercised over his follow- ers, and felt keenly the slight given him by others of his own faith whom he conceived were disposed to prevent his attaining the leadership of his party. I remember early in 1858 of his coming into the office one morning and speaking in very dejected 390 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 391 terms of the treatment he was receiving at the hands of Horace Greeley. "I think Greeley," he complained, "is not doing me right. His conduct, I believe, savors a little of injustice. I am a true Republican and have been tried already in the hot- test part of the anti-slavery fight, and yet I find him taking up Douglas, a veritable dodger, — once a tool of the South, now its enemy, — and pushing him to the front. He forgets that when he does that he pulls me down at the same time. I fear Greeley's attitude will damage me with Sumner, Seward, Wil- son, Phillips, and other friends in the East." This was said with so much of mingled sadness and ear- nestness that I was deeply impressed. Lincoln was gloomy and restless the entire day. Greeley's letters were driving the enthusiasm out of him.* He seemed unwilling to attend to any business, and finally, just before noon, left the office, going over to the United States Court room to play a game of chess with Judge Treat, and did not return again * Greeley's letters were very pointed and sometimes savage. Here is one: "I have not proposed to instruct the Republicans of Illinois in their political duties, and I doubt very much that even so much as is implied in your letter can be fairly deduced from any- thing I have written. Now let me make one prediction. If you run a candidate [for Congress] against Harris and he is able to canvass he will beat you badly. He is more of a man at heart and morally than Douglas, and has gone into this fight with more earnestness and less calculation. Of the whole Douglas party he is the truest and best. I never spoke a dozen words with him in my life, having met him but once, but if I lived in his district I should vote for him. As I have never spoken of him in my paper, and suppose I never shall, I take the liberty to say this much to you. Now paddle your own dug-out ! "Yours, "Horace Greeley.'" 392 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. that day. 1 pondered a good deal over Lincoln's dejection, and that night, after weighing the matter well in mind, resolved to go to the eastern States myself and endeavor to sound some of the great men there. The next day, on apprising Lincoln of my determination, he questioned its propriety. Our relations, he insisted, were so intimate that a wrong construction might be put upon the movement. I listened carefully to him, but as I had never been beyond the Alleghanies I packed my valise and •went, notwithstanding his objections. I had been in correspondence on my own account with Greeley, Seward, Sumner, Phillips, and others for several years, had kept them informed of the feelings of our people and the political campaigns in their various stages, but had never met any of them save Greeley. I enjoyed heartily the journey and the varied sights and scenes that attended it. Aside from my mission, the trip was a great success. The magnificent buildings, the display of wealth in the large cities and prosperous manufacturing towns, broadened the views of one whose vision had never extended beyond the limits of the Illinois prairies. In Washington I saw and dined with Trumbull, who went over the situation with me. Trumbull had written to Lincoln shortly before* that he thought it "useless to speculate upon the further course of Douglas or the effect it is to have in Illinois or other States. He himself does not know where he is going or where he will come out." At my inter- view with Trumbull, however, he directed me to ♦Letter, December 25, 1857, MS. THE LIFE OF LIXCOLX. 393 assure Air. Lincoln that Douglas did not mean to join the Republican party, however great the breach between himself and the administration might be. ..-'publicans here," he said exultingly in another letter to Lincoln, "are in good spirits, and are standing back to let the fight go on between Douglas and his former associates. Lincoln will lose nothing by this if he can keep the attention of our Illinois people from being diverted from the great and vital question of the day to the minor and temporary issues w r hich are now being dis- cussed."* In Washington I saw also Seward, Wil- son, and others of equal prominence. Douglas was confined to his house by illness, but on receiv- ing my card he directed me to be shown up to his room. We had a pleasant and interesting inter- view. Of course the conversation soon turned on Lincoln. In answer to an inquiry regarding the lat- ter I remarked that Lincoln was pursuing the even tenor of his way. "He is not in anybody's way," I contended, "not even in yours, Judge Douglas." He was sitting up in a chair smoking a cigar. Be- tween puffs he responded that neither was he in the way of Lincoln or any one else, and did not intend to invite conflict. He conceived that he had achieved what he had set out to do, and hence did not feel that his course need put him in opposi- tion to Mr. Lincoln or his party. "Give Mr. Lin- coln my regards," he said, rather warmly, "when you return, and tell him I have crossed the river and Letter, December 27. 1857, MS. 394 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. burned my boat." Leaving Washington, my next point was New York, where I met the editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard, Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and others. I had a long talk with Geeley, whom I noticed leaned toward Douglas. I found, however, he was not at all hostile to Lincoln. I presented the latter's case in the best phase I knew how, but while I drew but little from him, I left feeling that he hadn't been entirely won over. He introduced me to Beecher, who, as everybody else did, inquired after Lincoln and through me sent him words of encouragement and praise.* From New York I went to Boston, and from the latter place I wrote Lincoln a letter which happily I found not long since in a bundle of Lincoln's letters, and which I insert here, believing it affords a better reflex of the situation at the time than anything I might see fit to say now. Here it is : "Revere House, "Boston, Mass., March 24, 1858. "Friend Lincoln. "I am in this city of notions, and am well — very well indeed. I wrote you a hasty letter from Washington some days ago, since which time I have been in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and now here. I saw Greeley, and so far as any of our conversation is interesting to you I will relate. And we talked, say twenty minutes. He evidently * Lincoln's greatest fear was that Douglas might be taken up by the Republicans. Senator Seward, when I met him in Wash- ington, assured me there was no danger of it, insisting that the Republicans nor any one else could place any reliance on a man so slippery as Douglas. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 395 wants Douglas sustained and sent back to the Senate He did not say so in so many words, yet his feelings are with Douglas. I know it from the spirit and drift of his conversation. He talked bitterly— somewhat so— against the papers in Illi- nois, and said they were fools. I asked him this question 'Greeley, do you want to see a third party organized, or do you want Douglas to ride to power through the North, which he has so much abused and betrayed?' and to which he replied, Let the future alone; it will all come right. Douglas is a brave man. Forget the past and sustain the right- eous.' Good God, righteous, eh! "Since I have landed in Boston I have seen much that was entertaining and interesting. This morn- ing I was introduced to Governor Banks. He and I had a conversation about Republicanism and especially about Douglas. He asked me this ques- tion 'You will sustain Douglas in Illinois wont you?' and to which I said Wo, never!' He affected to be much surprised, and so the matter dropped and turned on Republicanism, or in general— Lin- coln. Greeley's and other sheets that laud Douglas Harris et al., want them sustained, and will try to do it. Several persons have asked me the same question which Banks asked and evidently they get their cue, ideas, or what not from Gree ley, i Seward, et al. By-the-bye, Greeley remarked to me this The Republican standard is too high; we want something practical/ "This may not be interesting to you, but, however it mav be it is my duty to state what is going on, so "hat you may head it off-counteract it m some way I hope 1 can be done. The northern men are cold to me— somewhat repellent. "Your friend, "W. H. Herndon." 396 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. On my return home I had encouraging news to relate. I told Lincoln of the favorable mention I had heard of him by Phillips, Sumner, Seward, Gar- rison, Beecher, and Greeley. I brought with me additional sermons and lectures by Theodore Parker, who was warm in his commendation of Lincoln. One of these was a lecture on "The Effect of Slavery on the American People," which was delivered in the Music Hall in Boston, and which I gave to Lincoln, who read and returned it. He liked especially the following expression, which he marked with a pencil, and which he in substance afterwards used in his Gettysburg address : ''De- mocracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people." Meanwhile, passing by other events which have become interwoven in the history of the land, we reach April, 1858, at which time the Democratic State convention met and, besides nominating can- didates for State offices, endorsed Mr. Douglas' services in the Senate, thereby virtually renominat- ing him for that exalted office. In the very nature of things Lincoln was the man already chosen in the hearts of the Republicans of Illinois for the same office, and therefore with singular appropriate- ness they passed, with great unanimity, at their con- vention in Springfield on the 16th of June, the characteristic resolution : "That Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas' term of office." There was of course no surprise in this THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 397 for Mr. Lincoln. lie had been all along led to expect it, and with that in view had been earnestly and quietly at work preparing a speech in acknowl- edgment of the honor about to be conferred on him. This speech he wrote on stray envelopes and scraps of paper, as ideas suggested themselves, putting them into that miscellaneous and con- venient receptacle, his hat. As the convention drew near he copied the whole on connected sheets, carefully revising every line and sentence, and fastened them together, for reference during the delivery of the speech, and for publication. The former precaution, however, was unnecessary, for he had studied and read over what he had written so long and carefully that he was able to deliver it with- out the least hesitation or difficulty. A few days before the convention, when he was at work on the speech, I remember that Jesse K. Dubois,* who was Auditor of State, came into the office and. seeing Lincoln busily writing, inquired what he was doing or what he was writing. Lincoln answered gruffly, "It's something you may see or hear sometime, but I'll not let you see it now." I myself knew what he was writing, but having asked neither my opinion nor that of anyone else, I did not venture to * "After the covention Lincoln met me on the street and said, 'Dubois, I can tell you now what I was doing the other day when you came into my office. I was writing that speech, and I knew if I read the passage about the "house divided against itself" to you. you would ask me to change or modify it. and that I was determined not to do. I had willed it so, and was willing if necessary to perish with it."— Statement of Jesse K. Dubois, MS. 398 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. offer any suggestions. After he had finished the final draft of the speech, he locked the office door, drew the curtain across the glass panel in the door, and read it to me. At the end of each paragraph he would halt and wait for my comments. I re- member what I said after hearing the first para- graph, wherein occurs the celebrated figure of the house divided against itself : "It is true, but is it wise or politic to say so?" He responded: "That expression is a truth of all human experience, 'a house divided against itself cannot stand,' and 'he that runs may read.' The proposition also is true, and has been for six thousand years. I want to use some universally known figure expressed in simple language as universally well-known, that may strike home to the minds of men in order to raise them up to the peril of the times. I do not believe I would be right in changing or omitting it. I would rather be defeated with this expression in the speech, and uphold and discuss it before the people, than be victorious without it." This was not the first time Lincoln had endorsed the dogma that our Government could not long endure part slave and part free. He had incorporated it in a speech at Bloomington in 1856, but in obedience to the emphatic protest of Judge T. Lyle Dickey and others, who conceived the idea that its "delivery would make Abolitionists of all the North and slavery propagandists of all the South, and thereby precipitate a struggle which might end in dis- union," he consented to suspend its repitition, but THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 399 only for that campaign.* Now, however, the situa- tion had changed somewhat. There had been a shifting of scenes, so to speak. The Republican party had gained some in strength and more in moral effectiveness and force. Nothing could keep back in Lincoln any longer, sentiments of right and truth, and he prepared to give the fullest expression to both in all future contests. Before delivering his speech he invited a dozen or so of his friends over to the library of the State House, where he read and submitted it to them. After ' the reading he asked each man for his opinion. Some condemned and not one endorsed it. One man, more forcible than elegant, characterized it as a "d— 4 fool utterance;" another said the doctrine was "ahead of its time;" and still another contended that it would drive away a good many voters fresh from the Democrats ranks. Each man attacked it in his criticism. I was the last to respond. Although the doctrine announced was * "After the meeting was over Mr. Lincoln and I returned to the Pike House, where we occupied the same room. Immed- iately on reaching the room I said to him, 'What in God's name could induce you to promulgate such an opinion?' He rep bed familiarly, 'Upon my soul, Dickey, I think it is true. I reas- oned to show it was not a correct opinion He argued strenu- ously that the opinion was a sound one. At length I said, Sup- nose you are right, that our Government cannot last part free and part Save, what good is to be accomplished by inculcating that opinion (or truth, if you please) in the minds of the peo- ple" After some minutes reflection he rose and approached me, extending his right hand to take mine, and said, 'From respect for you judgment. Dickey, I'll promise you I won't teach the doctrine again during this campaign.' "-Letter, T. Lyle Dickey. MS.. December 8, 1866. 400 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. rather rank, yet it suited my views, and I said, "Lincoln, deliver that speech as read and it will make you President." At the time I hardly realized the force of my prophecy. Having patiently listened to these various criticisms from his friends — all of which with a single exception were ad- verse — he rose from his chair, and after alluding to the careful study and intense thought he had given the question, he answered all their objections sub- stantially as follows : "Friends, this thing has been retarded long enough. The time has come when these sentiments should be uttered ; and if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth — let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right." The next day, the 17th, the speech was delivered just as we had heard it read. Up to this time Seward had held sway over the North by his "higher-law" sentiments, but the "house-divided- against-itself" speech by Lincoln in my opinion drove the nail into Seward's political coffin.* Lincoln had now created in reality a more pro- found impression than he or his friends anticipated. Many Republicans deprecated the advanced ground he had taken, the more so as the Democrats re- joiced that it afforded them an issue clear and * In any student of oratorical history, after reading Lincoln's speech on this occasion, will refer to Webster's reply to Hayne in the Senate, he will be struck with the similarity in figure and thought in the opening lines of both speeches. In fact, it may not be amiss to note that, in this instance, Webster's effort was carefully read by Lincoln and served in part as his model. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 401 well-defined. Numbers of his friends distant from Springfield, on reading his speech, wrote him censo- rious letters ; and one well-informed co-worker* pre- dicted his defeat, charging it to the first ten lines of the speech. These complaints, coming apparently from every quarter, Lincoln bore with great pa- tience. To one complainant who followed him into his office he said proudly. "If I had to draw a pen across my record, and erase my whole life from sight, and I had one poor gift or choice left as to what I should save from the wreck, I should choose that speech and leave it to the world unerased." Meanwhile Douglas had returned from Washing- ton to his home in Chicago. Here he rested for a few days until his friends and co-workers had ar- ranged the details of a public reception on the 9th of July, when he delivered from the balcony of the Tremont House a speech intended as an answer to the one made by Lincoln in Springfield. Lincoln was present at this reception, but took no part in it. The next day, however, he replied. Both speeches were delivered at the same place. Leaving Chicago, Douglas passed on down to Bloomington and Springfield, where he spoke on the 16th and 17th of July respectively. On the evening of the latter dav Lincoln responded again in a most effective and convincing effort. The contest now took on a diff- erent phase. Lincoln's Republican friends urged him to draw Douglas into a joint debate, and he accordingly sent him a challenge on the 24th of * Leonard Swett. 402 THE L1FE OF LINCOLN. July. It is not necessary, I suppose, to reproduce here the correspondence that passed between these great leaders. On the 30th Douglas finally accepted the proposition to "divide time, and address the same audiences," naming seven different places, one in each Congressional district, outside of Chi- cago and Springfield, for joint meetings.* The places and dates were, Ottawa, August 21 ; Freeport, August 27 ; Jonesboro, September 15 ; Charleston, September 18, Galesburg, October 7 ; Quincy, * Among the items of preparation on Lincoln's part hitherto withheld is the following letter, which explains itself : "Springfield, June 28, 1858. "A. Campbell, Esq. "My Dear Sir: — In 1856 you gave me authority to draw on you for any sum not exceeding Ave hundred dollars. I see clearly that such a privilege would be more available now than it was then. I am aware that times are tighter now than they were then. Please write me at all events, and whether you can now do anything or not I shall continue grateful for the past. "Tours very truly, ■» "A. Lincoln." * The following recent letter from Mr. Campbell is not with- out interest : La Salle, III., Dec. 12th, 1888. "Jesse W. Weik, Esq. "My Dear Sir : — I gave Mr. Lincoln some money in the office of Lincoln & Herndon in Springfield in 1856, but I do not re- member the exact amount. It was, however, between two and three hundred dollars. I never had Mr. Lincoln's obligation for the payment of any money. I never kept any account of nor charged my memory with any money I gave him. It was given to defray his personal expenses and otherwise promote the interest of a cause which I sincerely believed to be for the public good, and without the thought or expectation of a dollar of it ever being returned. From what I knew and learned of his careful habits in money matters in the campaign of 1856 I am entirely confident that every dollar and dime I ever gave was carefully and faithfully applied to the uses and purposes for which it was given. "Sincerely yours, "A. Campbell." THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 4Q3 October 13 ; and Alton, October 15. "I agree to your suggestion," wrote Douglas, "that we shall alternately open and close the discussion. 'I will speak at Ottawa one hour, you can reply, occupying an hour and a half, and I will then follow for half an hour. At Freeport you shall open the discus- sion and speak one hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply for half an hour. We will alternate in like manner in each successive place." To this arrangement Lincoln on the 31st gave his consent, "although," he wrote, "by the terms as you propose you take four openings and closes to my three." History furnishes few characters whose lives and careers were so nearly parallel as those of Lincoln and Douglas. They met for the first time at the Legislature in Vandalia in 1831:, where Lincoln was a member of the House of Representatives and Douglas was in the lobby. The next year Douglas was also a member. In 1839 both "were admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois on the same day.* In 1841 both courted the same young lady. In 18-16 both represented Illinois in Congress at Washington, the one in the upper and the other in the lower House. In 1858 they were opposing candidates for United States Senator; and finally, to complete the remarkable counterpart, both were candidates for the Presidency in 1860. While it is true that their ambitions ran in parallel lines, yet they were exceedingly unlike in all other particulars. * December 3d. 404 THE LIF E OF LINCOLN. Douglas was short, — something over five feet high, — heavy set, with a large head, broad shoulders, deep chest, and striking features. He was polite and affable, but fearless. He had that unique trait, magnetism, fully developed in his nature, and that attracted a host of friends and readily made him a popular idol. He had had extensive experience in debate, and had been trained by contact for years with the great minds and orators in Congress. He was full of political history, well informed on general topics, eloquent almost to the point of brilliancy, self-confident to the point of arrogance, and a dangerous competitor in every respect. What he lacked in ingenuity he made up in strategy, and if in debate he could not tear down the struct- ure of this opponent's argument by a direct and violent attack, he was by no means reluctant to resort to a strained restatement of the latter's po- sition or to the extravagance of ridicule. Lincoln knew his man thoroughly and well.* He had often met Douglas on the stump; was familiar with his tactics, and though fully aware of his "want of * An erroneous impression has grown up in recent years con- cerning Douglas's ability and standing as a lawyer. One of the latest biographies of Lincoln credits him with many of the arti- fices of the "shyster." This is not only unfair, but decidedly un- true. I always found Douglas at the bar to be a broad, fair, and liberal-minded man. Although not a thorough student of the law his large fund of good common-sense kept him in the front rank. He was equally generous and courteous, and he never stooped to gain a case. I know that Lincoln entertained the same view of him. It was only in politics that Douglas demonstrated any want of inflexibility and rectitude, and then only did Lincoln manifest a lack of faith in his morals. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 405 fixed political morals," was not averse to measuring swords with the elastic and flexible "Little Giant." Lincoln himself was constructed on an entirely different foundation. His base was plain common- sense, direct statement, and the inflexibility of logic In physical make-up he was cold— at least not magnetic— and made no effort to dazzle people by his bearing. He cared nothing for a following, and though he had often before struggled for a polit- ical prize, yet in his efforts he never had strained his well-known spirit of fairness or open love of the truth. He analyzed everything, laid every state- ment bare, and by dint of his broad reasoning pow- ers and manliness of admission inspired his hearers with deep conviction of his earnestness and hon- esty. Douglas may have electrified the crowds with his eloquence or charmed them with his majestic bearing and dexterity in debate, but as each man, after the meetings were over and the applause had died away, went to his home, his head rang with Lincoln's logic and appeal to manhood. A brief description of Mr. Lincoln's appearance on the stump and of his manner when speaking may not be without interest. When standing erect he was six feet four inches high. He was lean in flesh and ungainly in figure. Aside from the sad, pained look due to habitual melancholy, his face had no characteristic or fixed expression. He was thin through the chest, and hence slightly stoop-shoul- dered. When he arose to address courts, juries, or crowds of people, his body inclined forward to a 406 THE LIFE 0F LINCOLN. slight degree. At first he was very awkward, and it seemed a real labor to adjust himself to his sur- roundings. He struggled for a time under a feel- ing of apparent diffidence and sensitiveness, and these only added to his awkwardness. I have often seen and sympathized with Air. Lincoln during these moments. When he began speaking, his voice was shrill, piping, and unpleasant. His man- ner, his attitude, his dark, yellow face, wrinkled and dry, his oddity of pose, his diffident movements — everything seemed to be against him, but only for a short time. After having arisen, he generally placed his hands behind him, the back of his left hand in the palm of his right, the thumb and fingers of his right hand clasped around the left arm at the wrist. For a few moments he played the combination^ of awkwardness, sensitiveness, and diffidence. As he proceeded he became somewhat animated, and to keep in harmony with his growing warmth his hands relaxed their grasp and fell to his side. Presently he clasped them in front of him, interlocking his fingers, one thumb meanwhile chasing another. His speech now requiring more emphatic utterance, his fingers unlocked and 'his hands fell apart. His left arm was thrown behind, the back of his hand resting against his body, his right hand seeking his side. By this time he had gained sufficient composure, and his real speech began. He did not gesticulate as much with his hands as with his head. He used the latter fre- quently, throwing it with vim this way and that. This movement was a significant one when he THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 407 sought to enforce his statement. It sometimes came with a quick jerk, as if throwing off electric sparks into combustible material. He never sawed the air nor rent space into tatters and rags as some orators do. He never acted for stage effect. He was cool, considerate, reflective — in time self-pos- sessed and self-reliant. His style was clear, terse, and compact. In argument he was logical, demon- strative, and fair. He was careless of his dress, and his clothes, instead of fitting neatly as did the gar- ments of Douglas on the latter's well-rounded form, hung loosely on his giant frame. As he moved along in his speech he became freer and less uneasy in his movements ; to that extent he was graceful. He had a perfect naturalness, a strong individu- ality ; and to that extent he was dignified. He despised glitter, show, set forms, and shams. He spoke with effectiveness and to move the judg- ment as well as the emotions of men. There was a world of meaning and emphasis in the long, bony finger of his right hand as he dotted the ideas on the minds of his hearers. Sometimes, to express joy or pleasure, he would raise both hands at an angle of about fifty degrees, the palms upwards, as if desirous of embracing the spirit of that which he loved. If the sentiment was one of detestation — ■ denunciation of slavery, for example — both arms, thrown upward and fists clenched, swept through the air, and he expressed an execration that was truly sublime. This was one of his most effective gestures, and signified most vividly a fixed determination to drag down the object of his hatred and trample it 408 THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. in the dust. He always stood squarely on his feet, toe even with toe ; that is, he never put one foot before the other. He neither touched nor leaned on anything for support. He made but few changes in his positions and attitudes. He never ranted, never walked backward and forward on the platform. To ease his arms he frequently caught hold, with his left hand, of the lapel of his coat, keep- ing his thumb upright and leaving his right hand free to gesticulate. The designer of the monument recently erected in Chicago has happily caught him in just this attitude. As he proceeded with his speech the exercise of his vocal organs altered somewhat the tone of his voice. It lost in a meas- ure its former acute and shrilling pitch, and mel- lowed into a more harmonious and pleasant sound. His form expanded, and, notwithstanding the sunken breast, he rose up a splendid and imposing figure. In his defence of the Declaration of Inde- pendence — his greatest inspiration — he was "tre- mendous in the directness of his utterances; he rose to impassioned eloquence, unsurpassed by Patrick Henry, Mirabeau, or Vergniaud, as his soul was inspired with the thought of human right and Divine justice."* His little gray eyes flashed in a face aglow with the fire of his profound thoughts ; and his uneasy movements and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath the wave of righteous indignation that came sweeping over him. Such was Lincoln the orator. * Horace White, who was present and reported the speech for his paper, the Chicago Tribune. Letter. June 9, 1865, MS. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 409 We can somewhat appreciate the feeling with which Douglas, aggressive and fearless though he was. welcomed a contest with such a man as Lin- coln. Four years before, in a joint debate with him, he had asked for a cessation of forensic hostilities, conceding that his opponent of rail-splitting fame had given him "more trouble than all the United States Senate together." Now he was brought face to face with him again.* It is unnecessary and not in keeping with the pur- pose of this work to reproduce here the speeches made by either Lincoln or Douglas in their justly renowned debate. Briefly stated, Lincoln's position was announced in his opening speech at Springfield : "