Lincoln. We probably succeeded, for if he learned the story he never mentioned it to us."

Beyond what is here recorded Mr. Kent had but little more to communicate regarding Mrs. Lincoln herself. The incidents of her home life as he detailed them were far from voluminous; nor did he comment very freely on her attitude and bearing toward her husband. On that phase of the subject he was more or less non-committal. He insisted that Maria Drake, the girl who, for a long time, was an inmate of the Lincoln home, could shed more light than any one else, but she having married William Clark and moved to the Far West many years before, was no longer accessible. Brief and definite though Kent's recollection of Mrs. Lincoln was, I found that he agreed substantially with the other neighbors. "She was not only nervous and high-tempered," he said to me, alluding to Mrs. Lincoln, "but very demonstrative, quick of action, and at times loud. It was never difficult to locate her. It mattered not who was present when she fell into a rage, for nothing would restrain her. The iceman could testify to that. Her voice was shrill and at times so penetrating, especially when summoning the children or railing at some one whose actions had awakened her temper, she could easily be heard over the neighborhood. When thus aroused and giving vent to her feelings, it is little wonder that Mr. Lincoln would suddenly think of an engagement he had downtown, grasp his hat, and start for his office by the shortest and most direct route he knew."

CHAPTER XI

Lincoln as a lawyer - Estimates of David Davis and others - First leaning toward the law manifested in Indiana - Borrowing books of Judge Pitcher, of Rockport - Attending squire's court at Gentryville — Studying law books after reaching New Salem - Admission to the bar at Springfield - His opinion of examinations-Story of an applicant he himself examined-The note to Judge Logan - Hawthorne vs. Woolridge, his first case: its history and termination - Scammon vs. Cline, his first case in the Supreme Court - His last appearance in court - His three partnerships - His wonderful ability as a The scope and extent of his practice - Range and size of his fees - His skill and care in the preparation of papers - The trial of Bailey vs. Cromwell proving that a negro girl was not a slave - Also Carman vs. Glasscock involving the navigability of the Sangamon River.

reasoner

NOTWITHSTANDING the copious and unprecedented array of matter that has been apportioned to an eager world regarding the life of Lincoln, it cannot be said that his biographers have provided as broad and exhaustive an account of his varied achievements as we are entitled to have. This is especially true of our conception of him as a lawyer; for it was in the law office and the court-room that many of his peculiarities and traits of character were brought to the light. When delving into this phase of his activities I found that, among his colleagues at the bar and others equally competent to judge, no two agreed in their estimate of his genius and ability. Two men who have written books describing him as a lawyer put him at the very head of the list, whereas David Davis and William H. Herndon, who knew him longer and more intimately, probably, than all the other lawyers at the Springfield bar, each qualified what they said about him. "He could hardly be called very learned in the profession," said Davis, "and yet he rarely tried a cause without fully understanding the

law applicable to it. At the same time it can be said that he read law books but little save when the cause in hand made

it necessary." In October, 1885, Herndon put this in writing: "Although only moderately well read in the elementary books he studied so thoroughly certain special and adjudicated cases until he developed into a good practitioner. To that extent, therefore, it is fair to call him a case lawyer. Apparently he cared but little for forms, rules of pleading, or practice. He went in for substance mainly; but in the end became a good nisi prius lawyer and a better Supreme Court lawyer." Here is the tribute of Samuel C. Parks, one of his colleagues: "Lincoln's conscience, reason, and judgment worked out the law for him. It would not do to call him a great lawyer, for he was not; but it is fair to state that he was a good lawyer under conditions. He was not as quick as some men - in fact, required more time to study his case and thus arrive at the truth. But above all things he must feel that he was right. For a man who was for a quarter of a century both a lawyer and a politician, he was the most honest man I ever knew. He was not only morally honest, but intellectually so. At the bar he was strong if convinced that he was in the right, but if he suspected that he might be wrong he was the weakest lawyer I ever saw."

Though Lincoln was not a profound lawyer in the sense that the jurist John Marshall was, or, possibly, as able and successful a nisi prius practitioner as was Stephen T. Logan, yet, from an intellectual standpoint, he was greater than either. For clear reasoning power, merciless analogy, and lucidity of statement he had no superior at the Illinois bar, and yet the truth is there never was, either

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in Illinois or elsewhere, just such a lawyer. He said once he had never read a law book through in all his life, and yet it is the testimony of his colleagues that he was a most adroit and oftentimes dangerous antagonist. In the language of David Davis: "That man who laughed at a contest with the clear head, the brave heart, and the strong right arm of Abraham Lincoln always had to have his laugh first; for after the contest had ended and the man woke up with his back in a ditch, laughing was too serious a matter." Whatever he may have lacked of the delicate polish which comes of collegiate training was counterbalanced by his wonderfully well-developed reasoning powers. "All facts and principles," said Herndon, "had to run through the crucible of an inflexible judgment and be tested by the fierce fires of an analytical mind, and hence, when he spoke, his utterances resounded with the clear ring of genuine gold on the counters of the understanding. His reasoning through logic, analogy, and comparison was unerring and deadly. His adversaries dreaded his originality of idea, condensation and force of expression, not less than they writhed under the convincing effect of his singularly significant and apt stories. Woe be to the man who hugged to his bosom a secret error if Abraham Lincoln ever set out to uncover it. All the ingenuity of delusive reasoning, all the legerdemain of debate, could hide it in no nook or angle of space in which he would not detect and expose it."

Who or what really prompted Lincoln to adopt the law as his calling through life has never been determined. Along with numberless others I confess I have often wondered what would have happened, or what, if any, differ

ence it would have made in the world's history if, instead of making a lawyer of himself, he had taken to medicine, the pulpit, or some other one of the learned professions. It is known that very early in life, while living in Indiana, he evinced a pronounced fondness for the argumentative disputations which so often took place at the store and the blacksmith shop in Gentryville; and when the stage was set for a lawsuit before the village squire, "Abe Lincoln was sure to be on hand an eager and attentive listener." Many years ago, when I was at Mount Vernon, Indiana, I learned from Judge John Pitcher, that between the years 1820 and 1830, when he was living and practicing law in the town of Rockport, the county seat of Spencer County, Indiana, Abraham Lincoln on several occasions came down from his home in the village of Gentryville, distant about fifteen miles, and talked to Judge Pitcher about books, asking how to read them and how in other ways to obtain or at least improve his education. "I counseled with him," said Pitcher, "and loaned him several books, some of them being law books, which he took home with him to read. I understood he wanted to become a lawyer and I tried to encourage him." The specific names or titles of the volumes which Judge Pitcher loaned young Lincoln the former did not indicate, but we have the best of authority for believing that the first law book to which he had access was the Revised Statutes of Indiana, a small volume loaned to him by his boyhood friend, David Turnham. This statement is confirmed by Lincoln's stepmother, who was visited by Herndon at her home near Charleston, Illinois, in the summer of 1865, and later by a son of Turnham whom I met several times during my sojourn in south