LINCOLN AND HERNDON

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jected-in fact I never saw a man so depressed. I tried to rally his drooping spirits and thus extract all the comfort possible from the situation, but with ill success. He was simply steeped in gloom. For a time he was silent; finally he straightened up and thanked me, but presently slid back into his chair again, blurting out as he sank down, 'Well, whatever happens I expect every one to desert me now, but Billy Herndon.""

As has been truthfully said, it was his unwavering and inflexible devotion to the truth that formed the predominating trait in the character of William H. Herndon. In this respect he resembled his illustrious law partner. Both men up to a certain point were very much alike; but there was a difference. Lincoln, deeply cautious and restrained, was prone to abstract and thoughtful calculation. Herndon, by nature forceful and alert, was quick, impulsive, and often precipitate. If he detected wrong he proclaimed the fact instantly and everywhere, never piling up his wrath and strength, as Lincoln did, for a future sweeping and telling blow. He never stopped to calculate the force, momentum, or effect of his opposition; but fought at the drop of the hat, and fought incessantly, pushing blindly through the smoke of battle until he was either hopelessly overcome or stood exultant on the hilltop of victory. Younger than Lincoln he was more venturesome, more versatile, perhaps, and magnificently oblivious of consequences.

Conscious of his limitations Herndon knew that he was too radical and bold to achieve success in politics and he therefore sunk himself in the fortunes of his more happily poised partner. In the end posterity will accept the verdict

of Herndon's friends that, despite his faults, he was a noble, broad-minded man; incapable of a mean or selfish act, brave and big-hearted, tolerant, forgiving, just, and as true to Lincoln as the "needle to the pole."

Early in the seventies I opened up a correspondence with Herndon which ended only with his death and is represented by over five hundred pages of his manuscript now in my possession. After my graduation from college I journeyed from my Indiana home to Springfield to see him, and was so fascinated by his recital of Lincoln's life and activities that I adopted his suggestion and decided to remain there. For almost four years I traced Lincoln's footsteps viewing him from almost every possible angle. My researches were both continuous and painstaking; nor did I think of desisting until I had interviewed or communicated with almost every person then living in that region who had known or talked with Lincoln.

Shortly after my first meeting with Herndon, he piloted me to the dingy back room on the second floor of a store building facing the Court-House Square in Springfield which had sheltered him and his illustrious partner when they used it for their law office. "Here," he said, "is where we expounded the law to our clients, prepared our papers and charged up our fees." The room and furniture were strictly in keeping with the modesty of their fees. In the center was a table, leaning against the wall was an old sofa or lounge, and on the opposite side of the room stood the bookcase. An old wood-burning stove and four or five chairs completed the outfit. The bookcase contained not to exceed twenty volumes and of this number scarcely half were law books, the others miscellaneous,

IN SPRINGFIELD WITH HERNDON

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partly literary and partly official, and statistical reports. After a few hours spent in the old law office, Herndon took me to a room over another store building in an adjacent square where, as he related, Lincoln wrote his first Inaugural Address. The store-room below was occupied by Lincoln's brother-in-law, Mr. C. M. Smith, who conducted therein a dry-goods store. We were shown the table on which Lincoln did his writing and even the inkstand which, it was said, he had used. It was on this occasion that Herndon told me the story of the preparation by Lincoln of this, his first official document as President. Having but few books at his home Lincoln asked Herndon to procure certain volumes that he might consult them while he was at work preparing the Address. Herndon told me he was expecting a request for numerous books and pamphlets, but was surprised when Lincoln furnished him the list. It consisted of only four items: Jackson's proclamation against Nullification; Clay's famous speech on the Compromise of 1850; Webster's reply to Hayne, and a copy of the Constitution.

After visiting several points of interest in and about the court-house, Herndon and I returned to the law office where we spent the rest of the day. Lincoln had been but a few years in his grave so that the story of the association of himself and his partner, as it came from Herndon's lips, was a most vivid and entertaining recital. From this time forward I was destined to share to the end of his days the confidence and friendship of this rare and interesting man. From Herndon it was decreed I should learn what manner of man Lincoln was, how to measure him, to dissect his moral structure, to analyze his mental processes. I soon