yf %* (L03 B6P12a Packard, R. D. A # Lincoln, successful i: awy ' r LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER SI JL l III! by R. D. Packard Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/alincolnsuccessfOOpack ■\ ¥""//'' /as r JUf y^ fa* £rj£ fe. //«u*W.^ /..,* ,.-_,>„ */^ ^-,,.. > ^/' . *** *~ /v^i^Lc^ciX^ :3>"7C> £~ ^ a^jcc ..f..,...^ <£*££? #%>-"«p «e-* A. LINCOLN, SUCCESSFUL LAWYER by R. D. PACKARD "Sincerity his forte before a jury — excels in whatever requires close reasoning." — Memorandum made in 1860 by the Ohio biographer, James Quay Howard, and found among the Lincoln papers released to the public on July 26, 1947. Carpenter Printing Co. 7016 Euclid Avenue Cleveland 3, Ohio Copyright, January, 1948 by R. D. PACKARD Many hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been written about Abraham Lincoln. A small part of this literature contains accounts, usually based on traditional misinformation, which tend to deprive him of his early abilities, ambitions and successes. Similar fables concerning his pre-presidential "failures" have some- times created the impression that our Sixteenth President, who made his living as a lawyer, was not a successful one. Extensive research has shown that such a notion has no foundation in fact. Lincoln's professional career is given meager attention in most biographies dealing with his life, the implication being that in view of his fabulous fame as a statesman, it was a matter of little or no importance. This unfortunate supposition probably delayed a compe- tent investigation into his workaday affairs, for the first book dealing with him as a lawyer was not written until forty years after his death. Since that time, several volumes and scores of articles have been devoted to his vocational efforts. Well-meaning persons have attempted many times, without success, to discover ancestors who would explain Lincoln's greatness and there seems to be no known genealogical explanation of his aptitude for the law. In the seven preceding generations of his father's family there were weavers, blacksmiths, farmers and carpenters, but no lawyers. His mother's side offers even less promise of a hereditary solution, although we may speculate on the occupation and mentality of his unidentified maternal grandfather. Notwithstanding this apparent lack of forbears learned in the law, his bent toward a legal career was evident at an early age. It has been said that "the law was as natural to him as breathing." When a boy, he was thought by some to be lazy, but in his own way, he was ambitious then and throughout his entire life. He disliked physical labor because he did not think it held the kind of a future he wanted for himself. He observed that those who followed intellec- tual pursuits usually made the most progress in life and commented on that fact. He undoubtedly considered the law for a career long before he reached his majority. During his boyhood days in the wilds of Southern Indiana, the diversion he liked very much was attending court sessions in Booneville and Rockport, adjacent county seats. He is reported to have witnessed a sensational murder trial at Booneville and to have been permanently impressed with the eloquence and skill shown by the lawyer for the defense. So faithful was this backwoods boy in attending this primitive court that he was noticed by members of the bar and was able to cultivate their friendship. One of these lawyers said many years later, "J understood he wanted to become a lawyer and I tried to encourage him." We know that with but one year of formal schooling, young Lincoln pored over the volumes containing the Indiana and Kentucky Statutes. This was mighty dull reading for a teen-age youth, but his fertile mind was quickened and the seed sown for his later determination to attempt a legal career. There is a popular belief that he decided in favor of the law for a vocation when he accidentally acquired an old copy of Blackstone's Commentaries while a grocery clerk at New Salem, Illinois. But more deep-seated reasons resolved his ultimate verdict. His early love of public speaking, which, as a lawyer, he could exercise, and his powers of analysis, which he knew he possessed, had a major part in shaping his decision. During his first term in the Illinois Legislature, to which he was elected when he was twenty-five, he noticed that nearly all of the politicians he met there were lawyers. Perceiving the connection between the legal profession and public life, his desire to qualify for the bar with all possible dispatch became an avowed purpose. This session was to be renowned for the considerable number of its members who were destined to high political honors ; one would be President of the United States, one a candidate for that office, eight were to be Congressmen, six Senators, and one a member of a presi- dential cabinet. He had received encouragement and advice from a Springfield lawyer, John Todd Stuart, a cousin of Mary Todd, the sparkling girl he was to marry a few years later. Major Stuart, a graduate of Kentucky's Centre College, had met Lincoln when both were soldier- ing in the Black Hawk Campaign in 1832. Impressed with Lincoln's possibilities in the profession, he offered him the use of his modest law library. These were the books that this prospective member of the legal fraternity walked many weary miles to borrow and to return. In addition to Blackstone's Commentaries, student Lincoln pre- pared for the bar by reading Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Chitty's Pleadings. Most students then read in some lawyer's office, but Lincoln studied by himself. Although a good many of his reading hours were spent while acting in the capacity of postmaster and storekeeper in the ill-fated merchandising enterprise of Berry and Lincoln, we are informed that a favorite place was a wooded knoll near the village where he would throw himself under the most leafy tree. Here the lanky young man with the astounding future assidu- ously perused his borrowed volumes, shifting his position from time to time in order to be in the shade. To those who regret that Lincoln did not have an opportunity for a more conventional schooling for his profession, we have the opinion of a noted authority that had he received a formal legal education, his natural talents might have been curbed ana 1 instead of becoming counsel for the world's greatest Democracy, he in all likelihood would have lived out a placid career as a conscientious but routine family lawyer. Easily meeting the simple bar requirements, he moved from New Salem to nearby Springfield and began to practice law there in the spring of 1837, at twenty-eight years of age. This was a late start for the times. Stephen A. Douglas, whom Lincoln had encountered in that first Legislative session, was well launched on his legal career at twenty-one and most contemporary attorneys had commenced their professional careers at an early age. Lawyer Stuart, who had stimulated Lincoln's legal ambitions, invited him to become his partner, an offer which was apparently accepted without hesitation. It has been recorded that clients of the new firm were not too favorably impressed with the junior member. Shortly after the partnership was formed, Stuart sent Lincoln to try a case in a nearby town. The client refused his services, saying that the long-legged lawyer looked like "a rustic on his first visit to the circus." The records show that the rejected and downcast beginner later won several cases from the lawyer who supplanted him in this case. Stuart was a good lawyer, but at this time political ambitions occupied the dominating place in his life. This absorbing interest gained him a seat in Congress soon after taking Lincoln on, a situation which proved of some benefit to the junior partner, who was forced to accept responsibilities and to look after details which, though boring to him, gave him valuable experience. In the matter of precise, methodical virtues, Lincoln would always leave something to be desired, but in these early practice years he acquired a good knowledge of the humdrum side of the law. During this period he often slept on an ancient sofa in the office in order to save room rent, a type of experience quite common with him. His second partnership was with Stephen T. Logan, for many years one of Illinois' top-ranking lawyers. Logan might have persuaded almost any lawyer in Central Illinois to practice with him, but he picked Lincoln, having noticed his ability in court. Judge Logan appears to have been unusually successful in selecting capable partners. Four of them became governors of states. He taught them effective court technique and insisted on a careful study of every phase of their cases. The experience Lincoln gained in the few years he worked with this superior lawyer proved a very great advantage to him. About two years after Lincoln's marriage, which occurred in the fall of 1842, the firm of Logan and Lincoln was dissolved. Shortly thereafter Lincoln established the partnership of Lincoln and Hern- don. William H. Herndon, ten years Lincoln's junior, had read law with Judge Logan. He was without a connection and Lincoln's choice may be said to have been an expedient one. Herndon may also have been chosen because the senior partner wanted a helper suited and disposed to perform those tasks associated with the profession which he himself found somewhat dull, reserving to himself those duties which he liked best. This partnership, an effective one despite the great dif- ference in the talents of the members, continued until Lincoln's death. Most of the future President's years of active law practice were spent on the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, which was situated in the east central section of the state. This circuit comprised about ten thousand square miles during its period of greatest expansion. It is said that Lincoln was the only lawyer who ever covered all of the counties included within its boundary. There were usually two terms of court a year at each county seat, court being in session from three to five days in each term. This meant that Lincoln was away from his Springfield home for many weeks at a time. Life on the circuit in those days meant many physical inconven- iences, some of which would be regarded as severe hardships today. At first the roads were merely muddy or dusty trails across the prairie and it was necessary to travel on horseback. Toward the latter part of Lincoln's practice, buggies could be used and later railroads oper- ated between some of the county seats. The accommodations which met the Judge and lawyers who traveled the circuit were poor, the stable facilities sometimes being about as good as those offered by the taverns. Occasionally there would be but one fit bedroom, this being reserved for the Judge. That dignitary usually shared it with one or two others, but the balance of the party was obliged to sleep in make- shift quarters. Judges, lawyers, clients and prisoners on bail ate at the same table. Although these features of circuit life were a prolific source of grumblings, Lincoln's even temper, unfailing good humor and light- heartedness enabled him to pass them by without caustic comment. The food was often wretched, yet we have the word of his fellow lawyers that he never mentioned it. It was reported that he com- plained only once ; this was when a tavern keeper was found in an advanced state of intoxication and, after a long, cold ride, these repre- sentatives of frontier law were obliged to gather and split wood for a fire. There were many pleasant hours on the circuit, however, and this was the kind of diversion that appealed to Lincoln very much. He thoroughly enjoyed these periods and his own contribution was an approachable, easy-going manner and an unlimited stock of stories, told in his matchless style. But, although he was fond of these informal occasions, it must not be assumed that he spent all of his county seat leisure in such congenial company. He possessed an instinctive, life- long tendency to frequent solitude and this often caused him to go off by himself, avoiding his associates. At such times his privacy was respected. One of his companions of these days said later, "Nothing can be more absurd than to picture the Lincoln of his circuit days as a buffoon. He did not trade on his story-telling gifts." Lincoln sought in several ways to improve his mind during these years on the circuit. He was able to indulge his relish for Shakespeare and Burns, eventually becoming something of an authority on the literature of both. It was during these circuit-riding years that Lincoln mastered the uninspiring Euclid, for the most part when others were asleep. A circuit associate reported, "More than once I remember getting up early in the morning to find him sitting before the fire, his mind concentrated on some subject. He would sit for hours without moving, working out a line of thought to its end. And stupid persons thought him indolent." Lincoln once explained the method by which he had cultivated his ability to reason. He said, "I constantly came across the word 'demon- strate'. I thought I understood its meaning but soon found that I did not. I consulted a dictionary. That told me of certain proof beyond the possibility of doubt but I could form no idea of what sort of proof that was. At last I said to myself, 'Lincoln, you will never make a lawyer if you do not know T what "demonstrate" means.' And so I w r orked until I could give any proposition of the six books of Euclid. I then found out what 'demonstrate' meant." Certainly these facts do not support the common belief that Lincoln was granted emergency wisdom and ability by a kindly Providence in order to preserve the sorely pressed American Union of the States. His rare native abilities were developed through his own persistent efforts. He became the product of his working and thinking habits, all of which built him up, and none of which pulled him down. His splendid endowments of mind and heart, unsupported by ambition and effort, would have been insufficient for the great task he was later to assume. Lincoln had an extensive practice on the circuit, proof that he was not simply a popular personality but that the local lawyers considered him capable. Such was his reputation that several lawyers advertised themselves as his partner. This meant that his consultation services were' available to them when he arrived in their town. A young lawyer with such a "consultative" partnership told of securing Lincoln's court help in a tough case. The opposing counsel dealt out such heavy blows that the young man was ready to give up. Lincoln said to him, "All that is very easily answered." And though seemingly unconcerned, he easily disposed, in his few remarks to the jury, of what his colleague had considered an unanswerable argument. There is a great deal of information in regard to his methods in court. He would not only admit, but would sometimes stress, the good points in his opponent's case, but when a trial was over, his adversary usually saw that what he had seemed so naively to concede was some- thing he could not have kept anyhow. He was always willing to trade away a point if it would aid him in earning one he thought more essential. He frequently outlined in detail the weaknesses of his own case, relying upon his ability to present its strength so convincingly that they would be overshadowed. Contemporaries mention his skill in handling witnesses. It was said that he never examined or cross-examined one to the detriment of his own side. He could see the logical conclusion of an answer long before it dawned upon the witness, and was able to lead him on with- out appearing to do so. He knew when to stop and never asked an unnecessary question. He was regarded by lawyers and judges as an almost infallible judge of human nature. If witnesses testified without evasion he was respectful to them, but he could and sometimes did score one if he thought their testimony untrue. Yet, his fellow lawyers stated that he never took advantage of a witness's low character to influence a jury. We are told that a stranger, watching him when he was trying a case, would soon find himself unconsciously on his side, wishing him success. There is much testimony to the effect that he emerged from his legal battles with no enmity towards his opponents, however antagonistic their attitude in court had been. Although he did not prefer murder cases, Lincoln represented the lefense in several. There is a popular impression that the Armstrong Case, in which he discounted the veracity of the prosecution's chief witness by producing an almanac, represented his outstanding effort in a murder trial. The history of this case indicates that it was his eloquent and powerful plea to the jury rather than the almanac strategy which secured the acquittal of his client, the son of a widow who had, with her husband, befriended him in his early Illinois days. The Harrison murder case is a classic illustration of his resource- fulness and imagination. He was associated in this defense with both of his former partners. Their case looked hopeless until Lincoln put an old preacher on the stand, drawing from him the story of his last interview with the murdered man. The victim had expressed a desire for a reconciliation with his assailant, whom he prayed would not be held responsible for his death. Lincoln's plea was that the jury heed the victim's request. He asked that they not deprive the deceased of his best claim to Divine mercy. The defendant, although guilty, was acquitted. A legal expert has recently pointed out how few lawyers would have thought of such a defense, much less have been capable of using it successfully. In advising young lawyers, Lincoln once outlined the part he thought oratory should play in a legal career. He said, "Extempora- neous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error for young lawyers than relying too much on speech making. If anyone, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance." Within the past few years a comprehensive survey has been made of the number and type of cases in which Lincoln appeared as counsel. This shows that he was engaged in the widest possible range of actions, from the most trivial to the most important. The record of his run- of-mine cases over his entire career does not show him to have been unusually successful, if we are to judge solely on the basis of decisions gained. While he won as large a percentage of his cases as other leading members of the Illinois bar of his day, the bare figure is not unduly impressive. It is important to note that his legal reputation is largely founded upon the character of those cases in which he was most effective as an advocate. Lincoln's success was far more impressive in his Supreme Court cases than in those of the lower courts. Toward the latter part of his practice he opposed the state's best lawyers there and the record shows that he won three important cases in one term from the astute Judge Logan. In all, he conducted 172 cases before the Illinois Supreme Court. One authority has stated, "Before the higher courts .... Lincoln was the State's outstanding lawyer." His associates stated that on questions of sufficient importance, and especially those involving new principles, he would cast authorities aside and follow the dictates of his own mind, organizing arguments to fit the requirements of the case and that in that sort of practice, he had little competition. It was said that he was able to detect and expose faulty reasoning no matter how skillfully it was disguised, and that he was particularly adept at quickly getting to the meat of abstract problems. Judge Davis, who presided over the Eighth Circuit for a number of years and whom Lincoln afterwards appointed to the Supreme Court, said, "He was able to fix the strong points of a case and present them with clearness and compactness. Generalizations had no charm for him. Every proposition submitted to his mind easily formed itself into a whole with its major proposition, its minor proposition and its conclusion. Whatever contradicted sound reason, he refused. Nature endowed him with a facile mind and he learned the elementary princi- ples of the law and the reasons why they had become established as such. He remembered well what he read because he fully compre- hended it. He understood the relation of things and his deductions were rarely wrong. He applied the principles of the law to the trans- actions of men with great clearness and precision." Another interesting bit of contemporary evidence was discovered when the Lincoln papers were released by the Library of Congress on July 26, 1947. This was a note made by the youthful Ohio biographer, James Quay Howard, following his interview with Major Stuart shortly after Lincoln's presidential nomination in May, 1860. The memorandum was concise but significant — "Sincerity his forte before a jury — excels in whatever requires close reasoning." Lord Shaw, an English legal authority, stated some years ago that he considered Lincoln possessed one of the most original minds ever to adorn the legal profession. He classed his reasoning powers with those of the renowned British barrister, Lord Mansfield. An Ameri- can authority, after an exhaustive study of his law cases, recently said he believed Lincoln's mental equipment was equal to that of John Marshall. This attorney added, "We may be certain that any present- day practitioner in Illinois would be exceedingly fortunate if he had Lincoln's practice or his then reputation. Before he was elected to the presidency, he had, of all Illinois lawyers, the best claim to be con- sidered the head of the Illinois bar." Lincoln was a corporation lawyer, having been engaged by several in the last ten years of his professional career. The Illinois Central Railroad first retained him in 1853 and he later won an extremely important tax case for them in the State Supreme Court, saving his client millions of dollars. He was opposed in this case by both of his former partners. It is significant that after he was well established in his profession, Lincoln was selected as the leader of counsel in nearlj every case in which he was associated with other attorneys. This was true of two famous cases tried in Chicago, in one of which he was engaged by the Rock Island Railroad against the Mississippi Steamboat interests, the other involving Chicago's intricate sand bar litigation. Such was the reputation he came to have in the Chicago and Illinois Courts and such was his special skill in cases having to do with mechanics and engineering that the farm machinery interests of the country selected him as their Illinois representative in the patent suits brought against them by the McCormicks of Chicago, founders of the International Harvester Company. It has been said that although Lincoln was honest by instinctive impulse, he became still more so by the logical operation of his mind. He would not accept a case which, although legally right, he felt to be morally wrong. To a prospective client who once sought his services he said, "We can doubtless win your case, setting a whole neighbor- hood at loggerheads, distress a widow and six fatherless children, and thereby get you $600 to which you have a legal claim but which right- fully belongs to the widow and her children. Some things that are legally right are not morally right. I would advise you to try your hand at making $600 some other way.' 1 Time and again he declined to undertake doubtful cases and he always discouraged litigation and sharp practices. On one occasion he advised his fellow attorneys, "Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. No one can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually casts doubt on the legality of deeds and titles in order to stir up strife and put money in his pocket." Some of his advice to fledgling lawyers has already been quoted. Although parts of it may read like the remarks of a theorist, there is the fact that he became a successful lawyer in following his own rigid rules of conduct. "There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest," he once said to a group seeking admission to the bar. "Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief. Resolve to be honest at all costs and if in l'» your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer." It was said of him that no man was stronger when on the right side or weaker when in the wrong than he was. Yet he believed that every client was entitled to have his case presented as strongly as possible. While he respected the law, he did not worship it, and once in a case, he wanted to win as badly as any other lawyer. Lincoln saw no reason to apologize for being a corporation lawyer. An opposing counsel once tried to gain an advantage with the jury by stating that his client was a flesh and blood man with a soul, while Lincoln represented a soulless corporation. Lincoln's prompt reply was, and still is, an effective answer to those who traduce industrial organizations because of their bigness. "Counsel avers that his client has a soul. This is possible, but from the way he has testified under oath in this case to gain or hoping to gain a few paltry dollars, he has already sold his soul very low. But our client, the Illinois Central, is but the conventional name for thousands of widows and orphans, whose husbands' and parents' hard earnings are represented by the defendant, and who possess souls they would not swear away, as the plaintiff has done, for ten million times as much as is at stake here." There is a record of his having commented to Herndon upon the receipt of a sizable corporation fee, "Let us thank God for delivering this client into our hands." There has been much curiosity concerning the fees Lincoln charged for his services. His own statements regarding fees show that he did not place emphasis on the commercial possibilities of his profession. "The matter of fees is important far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved," he said. "A fee's primary purpose is to bind lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule, never take a whole fee in advance. When fully paid before the end of the trial you are more than a common mortal if you can still feel that there is something in prospect for you as well as for your client. For when you lack interest in a case, it is bound to suffer in performance." There is a record of a case in which he did not take his own advice regarding cash retainers. A client in Springfield had for some time 11 dunned a man who he said owed him $2.50. The debt was denied. Lincoln was asked to enter suit, but, not considering the claim justified, he would not do so. Finally, after much persuasion, he consented, saying his charge would be $10.00, in advance. When the fee was produced, Lincoln gave the accused man $5.00 on condition that he pay the alleged debt. This was done. Lincoln kept the other $5.00, the prospective defendant was $2.50 ahead and all were satisfied. In setting his fees, Lincoln sometimes charged an odd amount in order to even things up. In one case he got a judgment for $116.90 and kept the $16.90, sending $100.00 to the plaintiff. In another case, he wrote to his client, "If you are agreed, let it be as follows: Give me two years' subscription to* your paper and send me $5.00 in good money or the equivalent of it in our Illinois paper." It was said that he was often hesitant to ask for his fees, small as most of them were. In some cases he insisted that his associates return to a client part of a fee which he thought unreasonable. His only mercenary motive seemed to be to meet his expenses and acquire a small competence. Most of his early fees were $5.00, a few $10.00. A large majority of his early cases paid him less than $25.00. It was in the Eighteen 'Fifties that he received larger fees. He got $2,500 in the McCormick Reaper Case at Cincinnati, although he did not participate in the hearing, and $5,000 from the Illinois Central Railroad for winning their tax case. Several other fees of substantial amounts came to him, all of which he faithfully split on a fifty-fifty basis with his partner, although Herndon's contribution to the earnings of the firm did not justify his receiving such a proportion. Notwithstanding the modest amount of his average fee, Lincoln's net worth when elected to the presidency was about $15,000. This was not an inconsiderable nest egg for the times and was the nucleus which, with the judicious investment of a large part of his presidential salary in government bonds and the competent handling of his estate by the administrator, totaled a tidy $1 1 1,000 two years after his death. He might have accumulated a great deal more in his practice years had he followed the example of several Illinois lawyers whose confidence in the future of Chicago's magic acres made them wealthy, a boom in which he evidently had little interest. But it is worthy of attention that a large part of his 1861 assets were in the form of notes owed 12 him by colleagues in the law, all of whom were reputed to be more moneywise than himself. Like many another lawyer, Lincoln died intestate. It is extremely doubtful that Lincoln would ever have emerged from his prairie background had it not been for his legal training. His professional years provided him with political and diplomatic expe- rience and the associations which shaped his availability for public service. A prominent student of his life recently wrote, "I am sure his experience in the courts had much to do with the development of those forces of intellect and character which he was to display in a broader area. It is impossible to over-estimate their value in bringing him into close contact with able men. Years before his presidency he had encountered and handled men whose counterparts he was to meet in Washington." Another authority has said, "My study of his life leads me to believe that it was his pre-eminent ability as a lawyer which was the foundation of his success as a statesman." In the famous debates, Douglas' reputation and his skill in bandy- ing words was offset, not only by Lincoln's greater sincerity, but also by his exact legal knowledge. The vital question Lincoln asked of Douglas at their Freeport meeting had an important legal and political implication. Douglas' faulty reply probably cost him the support of the South and his chance for the presidency. Only a man well schooled in the presentation of factual informa- tion could have delivered the masterful address which Lincoln made at Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860, thereby putting himself definitely in line for the presidency. This speech had to do with the constitutional aspects of slavery. In his professional life Lincoln had made the acquaintance of lawyers who were to be of much practical assistance in securing him the presidential nomination. It was a group of his legal associates who led the movement to make him the Republican nominee and one of them engineered the naming of Chicago as the convention city, a most clever piece of strategy from the Lincoln standpoint. A lawyer friend of many years placed his name in nomination at the convention there and Judge Davis of his Eighth Circuit days was in command of the Lincoln forces. 13 Lincoln carried into the presidency his legal experience of nearly a quarter of a century. He was obliged to deal immediately with complicated problems and his legal training is reflected in many of his decisions. The right of a state to secede, a constitutional question, was a foremost problem. He did not permit the Confederacy to attain the status of an independent belligerent, lessening the possibility of its recognition by other governments. This point was completely overlooked by his advisers, most of whom were prominent lawyers. He regarded the seceded states simply as wayward members of the great American family of states, members which Union authority was forced to discipline in order to insure their return to the fold. Lincoln believed inherently in property rights and disagreed with those radicals who clamored for the confiscation of Southern property. He wanted Congress to appropriate four hundred million dollars to pay the South for its slaves and as long as he could, he strove for compensated emancipation. He resolved to save the Union within the framework of the nation's basic laws and he knew what those laws w r ere. The Union preserved, his final problem would have been that of reconstruction. Had he lived, it would have been solved with due consideration to the legal rights and the economic interests of the whole country. He would have been advocate for the South as well as for the North, and the twelve-year period of carpet-bagging govern- ment, the most disgraceful page in the annals of America, would not have come to pass. «IO^G*9Vst» H UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 973 7L6386P12A C001 A. LINCOLN, SUCCESSFUL LAWYER. CLEVELAND 3 0112 031799544