97*.7L6^ Evans, Henry Oliver 
 
 B6Ev!a 
 
 Abraham Lincoln as a 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 AS A 
 
 LAWYER 
 
 By 
 
 Henry Oliver Evans, Esq. 
 
 SMITH BROS. CO. INC., LAW PRINTERS, 208-212 GRANT STREET, PITTSBURGH, PA. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnasOOevan 
 

 I. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A LAWYER 
 
 By Henry Oliver Evans, Esq. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was licensed to practice law on March 24th, 1836, 
 and tried his last important case, the Sand bar case, before the United 
 States Circuit Court at Chicago on March 19th, 1860. 
 
 With only four months of inadequate schooling, under five separate 
 teachers, no family or cultural background, no influential friends or clients, 
 merger professional preparation, loaded with debt, slowly but surely he 
 climbed to the leadership of the Illinois bar, developed those faculties of 
 directness of thought, clarity of statement and self-control which made him 
 the greatest American and one of the great men of all time. 
 
 What led him to choose the law? When did this purpose come to 
 him? After years of hard, patient, uncomplaining life m Kentucky, his 
 vagrant, shiftless father drifted to a squatter's cabin in Indiana with neither 
 window or floor when Lincoln was eight years old. 
 
 There Lincoln, a youth of seventeen, worked on a ferry boat at the 
 mouth of Anderson Creek and the Ohio River for $6.00 a month and board. 
 The next spring he was back on the Ohio, building a scow or light flat- 
 boat which he intended to load with produce to make a trip down the 
 river, perhaps to New Orleans. However, when the boat was finished he 
 discovered that it was not easy to obtain a cargo and the little money that 
 he had saved from his meager earnings during the fall and winter was 
 gone. He would have been in desperate straits had he not obtained occa- 
 sional employment to carry travelers and their baggage out to steamers 
 that had been hailed in mid-stream. Many years later he told the story 
 to* Secretary Seward and other members of his Cabinet, of the first time 
 he earned a dollar for less than a full day's work. 
 
 He had ferried two men and their trunks out to a steamer, to whose 
 deck he had lifted their heavy trunks. The steamer was about to put on 
 steam again when he called out that they had forgotten to pay him. Each 
 of them took from his pocket a' silver half dollar and threw it on the floor 
 of his boat. He said, "I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up 
 the money. Gentleman, you may think it was a very little thing and in 
 these days it seems to me a trifle, but it was the most important incident 
 in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar 
 in less than a day — that; by honest work I had earned a dollar when I had 
 supposed that they would give me four bits. The world seemed fairer and 
 wider before me. I was a more powerful and confident being from that 
 time." 
 
 But this occupation, strangely enough, before long brought him into 
 his first acquaintance with the law. One day, just as he had made one of 
 these trips he was hailed from the opposite side of the river by a man 
 named Dill who operated a ferry near that point, and in response to the 
 signal Lincoln rowed over to the Kentucky shore. No sooner had his 
 boat touched the bank than he was seized by Dill and his brother who 
 had been hidden in the bushes, who hauled him before a justice of the 
 peace. A warrant having been sworn out charging infringement of a 
 ferry franchise, the trial of the case of Commonwealth of Kentucky 
 vs. A. Lincoln proceeded. The justice got out his battered copy of 
 Littell's Laws of Kentucky: and after studying it for a few moments de- 
 livered the judgment of the Court, that the northern boundary of Ken- 
 tucky ran to low water mark on the Indiana side of the Ohio; consequently, 
 although the alleged offense had been committed from the far side of 
 the river, the courts of Kentucky had jurisdiction. He went on in con- 
 
struing the language of the statute — that one offending must have 1 "for re- 
 ward set any person over any creek or river" — "over" meant "across", and 
 since Lincoln had only taken passengers for hire out to the middle of the 
 river, no offense against the laws of Kentucky had been committed; there- 
 fore, "the defendant is discharged". 
 
 After the trial Lincoln sat on the porch for a while talking to the 
 squire, who expressed the opinion that every man would be a better and 
 more useful citizen if he possessed a general knowledge of the laws under 
 which he lived and particularly those relating to the business in which he 
 was engaged. The squire invited him to attend future sessions of his 
 court when convenient, and thereafter, Lincoln on several occasions pad- 
 dled across the Ohio to what was known as "Law Day" at the squire's 
 house. Following this incident, Lincoln began the study of his nrst law 
 book, "The Revised Laws of Indiana," which he borrowed from a friend 
 of his who was a constable. Bound with these statutes were the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Constitu- 
 tion of the State of Indiana and the Ordinances of 1784 and 1787 provid- 
 ing that there should be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in the 
 territory north of the Ohio. This original copy of these statutes studied 
 by Lincoln is still in existence. 
 
 Did this episode direct his path? 
 
 His home at Gentryville, Indiana, was about fifteen miles from the 
 County seat of Booneville. Every term of court was the one great diversion 
 and intellectual stimulant of the community, their theatre, lecture platform, 
 common meeting place, center of government, mental refreshment and 
 recreation. There is evidence that the youthful Lincoln witnessed at least 
 one hotly contested murder trial there and that he was so enthused by the 
 display of flaming eloquence that he sought out and congratulated one 
 Breckenridge, the lawyer for the defendant. "I felt", he remarked to 
 Breckenridge in the White House many years afterwards, "that if I could 
 ever make as igood a speech as that my soul would be satisfied, for it was 
 the best I had ever heard." 
 
 Lincoln had just reached his majority when the family again migrated 
 to Illinois and Lincoln started in life. for himself in New Salem where, 
 while tending store, he attended most of the trials conducted by the local 
 Justice of the Peace, Bowling Green. While studying law he brought his 
 first suit in the Court of Squire Bowling Green representing the claimants 
 of a hog and produced three witnesses who testified that the hog belonged 
 to them. Lincoln argued that the rules of evidence required a decision 
 according to the preponderance of the proof, to which the old squire re- 
 sponded, "Abe, all you say may be true but this court has in mind another 
 rule of law which says that a case should be decided according to the 
 actual facts. Now the court knows these witnesses and he also knows 
 this hog. He knows these witnesses are lying and personally knows this 
 shoat belongs to Kelso. Judgment for the defendant." 
 
 Springfield was only a few miles away and there is every reason to 
 believe that Lincoln attended the sessions of Circuit Court there. Then, 
 as he himself says, "In the days of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled 
 and came away," but not before becoming acquainted with his future law 
 partner, Major John T. Stuart of the Springfield Volunteers, whose friendly 
 advice and loan of law books encouraged him to continue the study of the 
 law. The Berry-Lincoln store fiasco which came next had only two redeem- 
 ing features — plenty of leisure for study and his purchase of a set of 
 Blackstone which he found at the bottom of a barrel of odds and/ ends he 
 had bought, out of the kindness of his heart, to aid a passerby. That was 
 a red letter day in his life and we have his own word for it that he literally 
 devoured the volumes. 
 
 From this period comes the characteristic story about a farmer who 
 
had employed Lincoln but found him lying by the road with a book instead 
 of a pitchfork in his hands. "What are you reading?" the old gentleman 
 said. "I'm not reading, I'm studying," Lincoln replied. "Studying what?" 
 "Law." "Great-God-Almighty," muttered the farmer as he passed on. 
 
 When in a comparatively short space of time Berry had drunk up the 
 liquid assets of the firm and Lincoln had sold or eaten the solid assets, 
 it was necessary for Lincoln to get some employment and he was lucky 
 enough to get a job as a deputy surveyor and then to be elected to the 
 Legislature at the total expenditure of 75 cents. While the salary of a 
 legislator was very little, Lincoln's four terms in the State Legislature 
 were of great value to him as a lawyer. During his first term he had 
 leisure for his law studies, and the practical experience with, and dis- 
 cussion of statutes and the process of forming legislation was useful 
 all his life. 
 
 Lincoln's 24 years as a practicing lawyer may be conveniently divided 
 into three parts, corresponding to his participation in three different part- 
 nerships. Although, as we have seen, Lincoln lacked preliminary cultural 
 or professional training and influential and wealthy connections, he was 
 fortunate, in differing ways, in each of these three partners. 
 
 The first, John T. Stuart, was busily engaged in politics, so that Lin- 
 coln was immediately thrown on his own resources in handling an active 
 practice and was thus enabled to cut his eye teeth during the four years 
 he was a partner of Stuart. The library of the firm consisted of the five 
 volumes of the Illinois reports and twenty volumes of miscellaneous law 
 books, legislative reports and congressional reports, but the citations in 
 his later cases shows that he made good use of the Supreme Court library 
 at the Capitol. Later in life, Lincoln recommended to a prospective stu- 
 dent that he should read, without an instructor, Blackstone, Chitty's Plead- 
 ings, Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity and Story's Equity Pleading 
 and "still keep reading — work, work, work." 
 
 Both of these conditions, that is, being thrown on his own resources 
 and the lack of outside aids, were advantages in that they forced him to 
 learn and follow the fundamentals which, after all, every good lawyer 
 must do. We must all face the fact today that it is difficult to see the 
 forest for the trees. As a result of these conditions, Lincoln did not be- 
 come, as so many lawyers do, "case-ridden," did not cease to> reason for 
 himself, did not yield his judgment to precedent and become a mere parrot 
 of decisions. 
 
 Lincoln appeared in seven cases in the Supreme Court of Illinois while 
 with Stuart. That Lincoln acquitted himself well we may safely assume from 
 the fact that he was singled out for a- partnership by Stephen T. Logan, the 
 best nisi prius lawyer in his district, a former judge who, after he left 
 the bench, was engaged on one side or the other of practically every case 
 in the Supreme Court. Logan knew Lincoln's power because Lincoln 
 had beaten him in every case, three in number, in which they had met in 
 the Supreme Court. 
 
 One of these cases, Bailey vs. Cromwell, 4 111. 71, involved an important 
 principle and was otherwise calculated to inspire each man to his very 
 best effort, although neither could possibly have dreamed that it was to 
 have a place in history as the first contest touching slavery in which the 
 Great Emancipator was engaged. Lincoln represented Bailey, who had 
 given a promissory note to Cromwell in payment of the purchase price 
 of a negro girl named Nance whom Cromwell had covenanted was a 
 slave. When the note matured Lincoln set up the defense that Nance 
 was not a slave, but after a hot fight Lincoln was beaten. He appealed 
 to the Supreme Court, his contention was sustained, the Lower Court was 
 reversed, thus automatically freeing the girl. This case has been cited 
 by other judges at least 18 times. 
 
Until that time Lincoln had been a lazy lawyer, that is, he had been 
 inclined to trust more to native wit and the spur of the moment than to 
 careful preparation — always a dangerous practice — but this was all changed 
 now. Logan was not only a well trained lawyer but he had the habit of 
 •continued and consistent study, as may be seen from the fact that he 
 made a practice of reading Blackstone from beginning to end each year 
 until he was 60, just as Rufus Cihoate made a practice of briefing both 
 sides of every case in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in which he 
 was not himself engaged. No less than 7 distinguished lawyers and 
 statesmen, 4 United States senators and 3 governors were developed in 
 Logan's office in later years. Logan was orderly and methodical in all 
 his ways, industrious to a fault, ambitious to make money and a money- 
 maker, wholly absorbed in his profession. Lincoln undoubtedly studied 
 and adopted his partner's methods of study and preparation because he 
 tells us that from that time on he was never taken by surprise either in 
 his own or his opponent's case. The firm of Logan and Lincoln had 36 
 cases in the Supreme Court of Illinois in the three years of its existence. 
 
 One of the characteristic Lincoln stories is of a case in which he 
 said to the jury, "Gentlemen, you must be careful and not permit your- 
 selves to be overborne 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 can sometimes 
 be wrong. Since this trial began I have discovered that, with all his 
 caution and fastidiousness, he hasn't knowledge enough to put his shirt 
 on right," referring to the fact that Logan had put on his shirt with the 
 plaited bosom behind. 
 
 This story is somewhat like the story of our own celebrated Jeremiah 
 S. Black who was very absent-minded. On one occasion, when he was 
 leaving on a trip, Mrs. Black said to him, "I have put in a clean shirt for 
 each day of your absence and I wish you would promise me that you will 
 remember to use a fresh one each day." Mr. Black promised faithfully 
 but when he returned Mrs. Black could find none of his shirts in his bag, 
 and it was then discovered that he had carried out his promise literally 
 and then had on his back three shirts. 
 
 By the early part of 1844 Lincoln had outgrown the position of a 
 junior partner, had become strong enough to take the place of leader to 
 which he had always aspired and which he had earned and, accordingly, 
 took in William H. Herndon as a junior partner and hung out the sign 
 of Lincoln and Herndon which still remained on the day of Lincoln's 
 death. While Herndon did not compare as a lawyer with his other part- 
 ners, he was useful in relieving Lincoln of the drudgery of the office, in 
 freeing him for his most active years on the Circuit and, through Hern- 
 don's interest in and acquaintanceship with, literature and general culture, 
 was of assistance to Lincoln in his public life. 
 
 With the exception of the time of the period of his one term in Con- 
 gress, Lincoln not only tried cases at Springfield and the adjoining coun- 
 ties but habitually followed the itinerant court held in the 8th Judicial 
 Districts of fifteen counties extending over 150 square miles. There were 
 no railroads until about 1854, so that the Court and lawyers traveling the 
 circuit went by horseback or in carriages. As soon as the frost was out of 
 the ground enough for travel, for about six months of the year Lincoln 
 followed Judge David Davis, afterwards Associate Justice of the United 
 States, with whom he was a great favorite. The Judge was a Falstaff in 
 size and took great delight in Lincoln's vivid sense of humor. 
 
 On one occasion while going over the docket, Davis came upon a long 
 bill in chancery drawn by an excellent but lazy lawyer. "Why, Brother 
 Snap," he said, "How did you rake up enough energy to get up such a 
 long bill?" "Dunno, Judge," Snap said. Davis then said, "What do you 
 
think about it, Lincoln? Wonderful, eh?" "Well," Lincoln said, "It's 
 like the lazy preacher who used to write long sermons and the explana- 
 tion was that he got to writing and was too lazy to stop." A lawyer 
 friend told Lincoln that he thought Lincoln took too much counsel 
 with Davis. Lincoln illustrated the position by the story about what 
 are called "side" judges, that is, associate judges not learned in the law 
 who sit with a president judge who is learned in the law. Someone asked 
 one of the "side" judges if the president judge ever consulted him. He 
 said, "Oh, yes." "Well, what does he consult you about?" "Well, the 
 other day when he came off his bench he asked me, 'Don't these hard 
 wooden benches make your back-side ache?'" 
 
 The evenings were spent by the crowd of judge, lawyers, clients, wit- 
 nesses and local celebrities in story telling, long and complicated argu- 
 ments and social gatherings given by the people in the County Seat, be- 
 cause court term was the big time of the year. On all of these occasions 
 Lincoln was a prime favorite but life on the circuit was, at the same time, 
 an opportunity to him for continued and strenuous study; for instance, he 
 mastered Euclid in the midst of the conversation of half a dozen men 
 in his room. Although the others grumbled at the hardships and incon- 
 veniences, Lincoln alone traveled the whole circuit and never missed a ses- 
 sion. In spite of the fact that judge and lawyer slept in one bed, with 
 sometimes three or four beds in one room, in spite of the poorly cooked 
 food and the hard beds of the dingy inns, Lincoln was amused by the free- 
 dom, the long days in the open air, the meeting with new people, the com- 
 radeship with his companions, the nights spent in story telling and discus- 
 sion of religion, history, politics and any and every subject which might 
 be broached. 
 
 When we compare the leisurely conditions of that day with the ten- 
 sion of our present professional life, we sigh for the good old days and 
 echo Horace's great second Epode: 
 
 "Beatus ille qui procul negotiis 
 Ut prisca gens mortalium 
 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis 
 Solutus moni faenore." 
 
 "Happy the man, in busy schemes unskilled, 
 
 Who, living simply, like our sires of old, 
 Tills the few acres which his father tilled, 
 
 Vexed by no thoughts of usury or gold; 
 The shrilling clarion ne'er his slumber mars, 
 
 Nor quails he at the howl of angry seas; 
 He shuns the forum, with its wordy jars 
 
 Nor at the great man's door consents to freeze." 
 
 The men with whom Lincoln competed were of no ordinary stamp. 
 One of these was Stephen A. Douglas and with him Lincoln was 
 in opposition from early life. Douglas began as a Democrat, Lincoln as 
 a Whig. Douglas became State's Attorney at 22 and Judge at 28, before 
 Lincoln got a start. Both of them began their political life in the Illinois 
 Legislature, both were in Congress, they were rivals for the Senatorship 
 and Presidency. It is even said that Lincoln cut Douglas out in the race 
 for Mary Todd's hand. No greater contrast could be imagined than be- 
 tween these two. Douglass was short, round, dapper and winsome; Lin- 
 coln, tall, lean and unmindful of dress, at first sight unprepossessing. 
 Douglas was bold, dramatic, quick and ardent in speech, a master of 
 spohistry and without humor. Lincoln relied on argument and persuasion, 
 was cautious, keen to detect fallacy and loved humor. 
 
Others in this notable group were Yates and Oglesby, afterwards 
 famous Governors; Leonard Swett and John M. Palmer, famous lawyers; 
 E. D. Baker, afterwards Senator from Oregon, leader of the California 
 bar, who died at the battle of Ball's Bluff; McDougall and Trumbull, 
 United States Senators, and other men of mark. 
 
 Judge Davis, who was one of the prime movers in Lincoln's nomina- 
 tion at the Chicago Convention and most competent to judge, testifies 
 that Lincoln was the strongest man before a jury he had ever heard. 
 Lincoln's cardinal rule in trials was, "Don't shoot too high. Aim low. 
 If you aim too high your ideas will go over the heads of the masses and 
 only hit those who do not need hitting." He was a great believer in plain 
 language. An exponent one day quoting to a jury some law Latin, turned 
 to Lincoln — perhaps with the idea of belittling him — and said, "Isn't that 
 so, Mr. Lincoln?" Lincoln said, "If that's Latin, you'll have to call an- 
 other witness." When he criticized the "fine writing" of a historian and 
 he was told that "the author of that history is one of the profoundest 
 scholars of the age; indeed it may be doubted whether any man of our 
 generation has plunged more deeply into the sacred fount of learning," 
 Lincoln drawled, "Yes, or come up drier!" When the public printer 
 objected to his use of the word "sugar-coated" in one of his State 
 papers, Lincoln said, "Well, Defrees, if you think the time will 
 ever come when the people will not understand what 'sugar-coated' 
 means, I'll alter it; otherwise I think I'll let it stand." 
 
 Lincoln excelled in the most difficult part of jury trials, the art of 
 cross-examination. He had, of course, differing ways of handling wit- 
 nesses. When he thought them honest and unassuming, his first thought 
 was to put the witness at ease. Thus in the famous Armstrong murder 
 case, he asked a young man, "What is your name, my boy?" "William 
 Killian." "Bill Killian," Lincoln said, "tell me, are you a son of old Jake 
 Killian?" "Yes, sir." Lincoln said, in an aside. "W T ell, you are a smart 
 boy if you take after your dad!" With such a witness he soon established 
 a footing such, that the witness was resolved not to say anything, if pos- 
 sible, to hurt Lincoln's case. 
 
 When he had a bumptious, "smart" witness he did not, as many do, 
 give him undue importance by attacking him vigorously, but flanked him 
 by good humor. He was defending a case of assault and battery where 
 he had no testimony to offer. The complainant told a horrible story of 
 attack, during which Lincoln observed that the witness seemed one who 
 would pride himself on his skill at repartee, so after looking him over for 
 a few minutes, Lincoln said, "Well, my friend, how much ground did 
 you and my client here fight over?" "About six acres," said the "wise- 
 cracker." "Well," said Lincoln, "don't you think this is an almighty 
 small crop of fight to gather from such a big piece of ground?" 
 
 In another case which depended on whether a fence was sufficiently 
 tight to keep out ordinary stock, he told a story about a fence which was 
 so crooked that when a hog went through, invariably it came out on the 
 same side it went in. His description of the surprise of the hog was so 
 funny that though he did not apply it to the facts in his case, it covered 
 the fact that his testimony was weak and the jury found for him. The 
 impression is general that Lincoln was a buffoon but it will be found, as 
 he said himself, that his stories were told with a purpose, not for applause 
 or amusement but to illustrate a point or relieve tension. 
 
 A jury trial is, in one sense, enacting a play and in another, painting 
 a picture; that is, the actions Of the witness and counsel have an Uncon- 
 scious effect on the audience, the jury, and the questions and answers, 
 when put into cold type, are the drawing and colors which should repro- 
 duce the witnesses to the appellate court if it has occasion to renew the 
 case. No one made better use of this fact than Lincoln. Lincoln defended 
 a suit for $10,000 for slander, which was a very common cause of action 
 
 8 
 
in that day. When he came to open his case he picked up the declara- 
 tion, looked at it long enough to attract attention, smiled a little, then 
 put it down. When he had repeated this the second and third time his 
 opponent was incautious enough to ask what the joke was, whereupon 
 Lincoln said that he was amused at noticing that the amount of damages 
 claimed had first been written in at $1,000 and then changed to $10,000, 
 he supposed, after the plaintiff had read the dire allegations of damage 
 done to his reputation. 
 
 He rarely took offense at the conduct of his opponent. One day on 
 the voir dire his opponent attempted to ask the jurors whether they knew 
 Lincoln. Judge Davis soon stopped him, saying that Mr. Lincoln was 
 so highly esteemed that he would not allow such questions. When Lincoln 
 came to examine) the jurors, and asked the same questions, the Judge 
 stopped him also, saying that he had ruled on that matter before and that 
 it made no difference whether or not the juror knew his opponent. Lin- 
 coln said, "But that's not what bothers me, your Honor. What I'm afraid 
 of is that the jurors do not know him." But when his honor was assailed 
 he immediately took unbrage. One of his opponents, addressing the jury, 
 said, "you have been listening for the last hour to an actor who knows 
 well how to play, for effect, the role of seeming." Lincoln, furiously 
 angry, interrupted, "You have known me for years and you know that 
 not a word of that language can be truthfully applied to me." Part of 
 what the opponent said was, "I take it all 'back, Mr. Lincoln." 
 
 Lincoln's honesty and integrity as a lawyer was questioned only once. 
 In 1853, just as the amount due Mrs. Lincoln from the estate of her 
 father,, Robert S. Todd, was being paid to her attorneys, suit was brought 
 against Lincoln by the surviving partners of a business in Kentucky, in 
 which Mr. Todd had an interest, for the proceeds of accounts alleged to 
 have been collected by Lincoln and retained by him. It became evident 
 that his brother-in-law, who had fallen out with his sisters over advance- 
 ments he said had been made to them by their father, was the influence 
 behind the suit. Lincoln never rested until this ghost was laid. Lincoln 
 took the offensive, defeated the dilatory' tactics and moves for delay of the 
 plaintiffs, forced a bill of particulars and when it was finally filed, dis- 
 proved affirmatively every allegation, with the result that plaintiffs them- 
 selves filed a motion to dismiss at their own cost. 
 
 The salient characteristic of Lincoln, as of all great lawyers, was his 
 honesty. When a storekeeper, he had been known to walk miles to cor- 
 rect a small mistake in change; he had worked for 14 years to pay off, 
 principal and interest, the debts accumulated by the firm of B'erry & Lin- 
 coln. This was an unusual trait in that pioneer country, where delinquent 
 debtors often disappeared; he was rightfully called "Honest Abe." But 
 many are honest, financially, who do not have the higher type of intel- 
 lectual honesty, high ideals which Lincoln possessed in so great a degree. 
 
 He said, "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to com- 
 promise wherever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner 
 is often a real loser, in fees, expenses and waste of time. As a peace- 
 maker the lawyer has the great opportunity of being a good man. There 
 will still be business enough." Again he said, "There is a vague 
 popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest * * * Let no 
 young man choosing the law for a calling, for a moment yield to the 
 popular belief * * *. Resolve to be honest at all events ; and if in 
 your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be 
 honest without being a lawyer. Choose some occupation other than one 
 in the choosing of which you do, in 1 addition, consent to be a knave." 
 
 On one occasion when he had brought suit on behalf of a rapscallion 
 for some money he claimed was due him and the other side produced 
 a receipt, he left the court room. When the judge sent to the hotel for 
 
him to continue, he said, "Tell the judge that I can't come; I have: to 
 wash my hands." As is the case with many lawyers, he had to believe his 
 client innocent in order to be an effective advocate. He said to an asso- 
 ciate, "The man is guilty. You defend him; I cannot. If I try to speak, 
 the jury will see that I think he is guilty and convict him." Perhaps this 
 trait explains the apparent record that he never lost a criminal case be- 
 cause none of his appeals in the Supreme Court are of a criminal case. 
 It may be, also, that this trait is the source of the claim made that 
 Lincoln would not make use of what are called ''technicalities." 
 
 Lincoln was too good a lawyer not to know and believe that 
 more injustice would result from a loose, "catch-as-catch-can" method 
 than from rules based on reason and experience and you will find, 
 from his first case to his last, that he took advantage, in civil 
 cases, at least, of every legitimate defense, many of them what are 
 called "technicalities." He did, however, have a keen and vivid sense 
 of justice as superior to the technical rules of the law. He brought suit 
 once against the Snow brothers who interposed the defense of infancy at 
 the time of making the note. When it was proved that the brothers were 
 minors and that Lincoln's client knew this at the time of accepting the 
 note, Lincoln, in his characteristic phrase, "Yes, gentlemen, I reckon 
 that's so," admitted this. The act which permitted minors to plead in- 
 fancy as a defense was read and admitted in the same manner. Lincoln 
 offered no evidence, listened to his opponent's argument to the jury and 
 then said: 
 
 "Gentlemen of the jury, are you willing to allow these boys to begin 
 life with this shame and disgrace attached to their character? If you are, 
 I am not. The best judge of human character that ever wrote has left 
 these immortal words for us to ponder: 
 
 "Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls: 
 
 Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing, 
 
 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
 
 But he that filches from me my good name 
 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him 
 
 And makes me poor indeed." 
 
 Then rising to his full height, and looking upon the defendants with 
 the compassion of a brother, his long arm extended toward the opposing 
 counsel, he continued: "Gentlemen of the jury, these poor innocent boys 
 would never have attempted this low villainy had it not been for the advice 
 of these lawyers." Then for a few minutes he showed how even the noble 
 science of law may be prostituted. With a scathing rebuke to those who 
 thus belittle their profession, he concluded: "And now, gentlemen, 
 you have it in your power to set these boys right before the world." 
 He pleaded for the young men only; he did not mention his client's 
 name. The jury, without leaving their seats, decided that the de- 
 fendants must pay the debt; and the latter, after hearing Lincoln, were 
 as willing to pay it as the jury were determined they should. The entire 
 argument lasted not above five minutes. 
 
 This high standard of honesty makes particularly atrocious and un- 
 just the slander which is sometimes heard to the effect that Lincoln was 
 guilty of sharp tricks in practice. This false idea rises from the celebrated 
 Armstrong murder case. When Lincoln was clerking at New Salem he 
 had won the admiration and respect of the rough Clary's Grove Gang 
 by flooring their leader, Jack Armstrong, in a wrestling match. In the 
 midst of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the son of Jack Armstrong called 
 "Duff" was to be held for murder. Duff was a youth of bad habits and 
 while under the influence of liquor had quarreled with and severely beaten 
 
 10 
 
a young man named Metzker. Later the quarrel was renewed, one Nor- 
 ris joined in the fracas and between Armstrong and Norris, Metzker re- 
 ceived injuries from which he died. Norris was tried, convicted of man- 
 slaughter and sentenced to eight years. 
 
 Under the law of Illinois at that time, Armstrong could not testify, 
 but Lincoln so ingratiated himself with the witnesses that no strong testi- 
 mony was given against Armstrong until a man named Allen testified 
 that he actually saw defendant strike the fatal blow with a slung shot 
 or some such weapon, and when Lincoln forced him strongly, located the 
 hour at about 11 at night. When Lincoln asked how he managed to see 
 so clearly at that hour although he was 150 feet away, Allen said, "By the 
 moonlight" and asserted that the moon was about full. Lincoln immedi- 
 ately produced an almanac showing that the moon was only slightly past 
 its first quarter, gave practically no light at 11 o'clock and set at seven 
 minutes after midnight. A curious myth has existed ever since that the 
 almanac Lincoln produced was one of another year altered to fit the case. 
 The fact is that any almanac, copies have now been unearthed, would 
 have shown just what was proven, not to speak of the improbability of 
 foisting an altered almanac upon judge, lawyers or jury. 
 
 If his client was poor or his sympathies were aroused, he refused 
 pay for his servides, as for instance, in the famous Armstrong murder 
 case. But his attitude, generally, as to fees was the despair of the bar 
 and even aroused the censure of the bench. He wrote once to a client 
 who had sent him $25 as a fee for services in connection with the lease 
 of a valuable hotel property in Quincy, "You must think I am a high 
 priced man. You are too liberal with your money. Fifteen dollars is 
 enough for the job. I send you a receipt for $15 and return a ten dollar 
 bill. 
 
 On another occasion, Stephen A. Douglas had collected $600 for a 
 client and gone off to Washington without remitting. The client was 
 recommended to go to Lincoln. Lincoln wrote to Douglas who answered 
 very indignantly direct to the client remonstrating against his having 
 given the case to Lincoln but not going so far as to remit. Lincoln then 
 sent the claim to "Long John" Wentworth, a fellow Congressman who 
 collected. The client afterwards said, "What do vou suppose he charged 
 me? $3.50." 
 
 A rich newcomer in town wanted Lincoln to sue an unlucky crack- 
 brained lawyer for $2.50. Lincoln advised him to hold off but on the 
 client's telling him that he would go to another lawyer, Lincoln took the 
 case, collecting a $10 fee in advance. He entered suit, then hunted up the 
 defendant, gave him $5 and told him to show up in court and pay up, so 
 that everybody was happy. 
 
 In one case where his associate collected a fee of $500, he objected 
 and forced him to return $250. The largest retainer Lincoln ever re- 
 ceived was $500, in the McCormick reaper patent case, in which his total 
 fee was $2,000, and the largest fee he ever received was $5,000 in the 
 Illinois Central Railroad tax case. His smallest known retainer was $2.80. 
 Many of Lincoln's letters have to do with the question of fees. On the 
 other hand, Lincoln was not slow to collect such fees as he earned, as 
 is shown by a characteristic letter, "I have news from Ottawa that we win 
 our Gallatin and Saline County case. As the Dutch justice said when he 
 married folks, 'Now vere ish mein hundert tollars.' " 
 
 Nor was Lincoln averse to being a plaintiff and suing to collect fees, 
 because the record shows seven suits by him for that purpose, in one of 
 which he compromised the claim for half his original fee. 
 
 Lincoln, however, experienced also the sensation of being a defend- 
 ant. We have already mentioned his first experience as a defendant, the 
 
 11 
 
only one in which he had to do with the penal code, the case of Common- 
 wealth of Kentucky vs. A. Lincoln. 
 
 One of these cases had to do with the first legal document Lincoln 
 ever drew which 'was a bond for $150 to secure the conveyance of a lot 
 in New Salem. Unfortunately, he ignored the 'cardinal theory that 
 as a lawyer he should not 'become surety for the (business engage- 
 ments of his client, by being both draftsman and surety on this bond and, 
 as is usual with such transactions, came to grief. Those for whom he' be- 
 came surety were David Rutledge, brother of Ann Rutledge and William 
 Green. 
 
 Green had been a fellow store clerk and afterwards "buddy" in the 
 Black Hawk War, and it was through his influence that Lincoln was 
 chosen Captain of his company, his first elective office. As with others, 
 Lincoln never forgot Green or his loyalty and friendship when friends 
 were needed. During the war he appointed him Collector of Internal 
 Revenue at Peoria and called him to Washington for a conference. There 
 Lincoln, after greeting his old friend warmly, turned to Seward, then 
 Secretary of State, and said, "Seward, shake hands with Bill Green of 
 Illinois, the man who taught me grammar." Considerably embarrassed 
 by this statement, Green, whose langauge was often far from grammatical, 
 refrained from conversation in Seward's presence for fear that statesman 
 would discover that deficiency which he thought might reflect on the 
 President, but when Seward had gone Green turned to Lincoln and said, 
 "Abe, what did you mean by telling Mr. Seward that I taught you gram- 
 mar? Lord knows I don't know any grammar myself, much less could 1 
 teach you," to which Lincoln responded, "Bill, don't you recollect when 
 we worked in Offutt's store at New Salem that you would hold the book 
 and see if I 'could give the correct definitions and accurate answers to the 
 questions?" "Yes, Abe," said Green, "I do remember that but that was 
 not teaching you grammar." "Bill," responded the President, "That was 
 all the teaching of grammar I ever had." 
 
 Like many a man without his marvellous command of English, Lin- 
 coln never quite accommodated himself to some of the technical, arbitrary 
 rules of grammar. W T hen he had prepared his letter accepting the nomi- 
 nation for the Presidency, he handed the letter to the State Superintendent 
 of Education for check on his grammar. Mr. Schoolmaster said there 
 was only one change he could suggest. "You should have written 'not 
 to violate' instead of 'to not violate.' Never split an infinitive, is the rule." 
 Lincoln, looking at, the manuscript with a puzzled air, said, "So you think 
 1 better put those two little fellows end to end, do you?" And so it is 
 written — "not to violate." 
 
 The first civil action against him arose indirectly, as did others 
 directly, out of his ill-fated entrance into business. The next case 
 against Lincoln arose on a note given for the purchase by Berry 
 and Lincoln of one of the stores at New Salem. A rival storekeeper 
 named Radford, becoming at odds with the Clary's Grove boys, or- 
 dered his clerk not to sell them more than two drinks of liquor on any 
 single occasion. Shortly after, when the gang, riding up, was refused 
 more than two drinks, they jumped over the counter, helped themselves 
 to the stock and then, thoroughly drunk, proceeded to break up the place. 
 Barrel heads were knocked in, bottles broken, showcases, crockery and 
 windows smashed, and the doors splintered. Radford .returning, declared 
 he would sell out to the first man who made an offer. Lincoln's old 
 friend, William Green, unfortunately, took him up and, just as the trade 
 was being closed up, Lincoln strolled over and suggested to Green that 
 they make an inventory. Green, unfamiliar with the term and thinking 
 it meant some sort of a riotous celebration, replied, "Abe, I don't 'believe 
 this store will stand another one just at this time." However, as a result 
 
 12 
 
of the taking of inventory, Green sold out to Berry and Lincoln, who 
 assumed his note to Radford. 
 
 Before the end of the year, t'he business had gone to pieces 
 leaving a batch of unpaid notes with no assets. Berry helped Lincoln 
 pay off what he could of the debts during his few remaining months 
 of life but left Lincoln with a staggering load which he called the 
 "national debt," which took him fourteen years to pay off. Judg- 
 ment was taken against Lincoln on this note for $154 and costs. 
 Execution was issued and levied on his horse, saddle, bridle, compass, 
 chain and other surveying instruments. "Uncle Jimmie" Short, who 
 "liked Abe Lincoln," bid these in and gave them back to him. Lincoln, 
 with tears of gratitude in his eyes, thanked his benefactor and said "Uncle 
 Jimmies, I'll do as much for you some time." In this, as in all other things, 
 Lincoln kept his word. He paid Short in full and years afterward, when 
 the old man was penniless, he appointed him, without solicitation, an 
 Indian agent. 
 
 Aside from the Armstrong murder case, Lincoln's most celebrated 
 cases were the McCormick Reaper patent case (McCormick vs. Manny, 
 6 McLean, U. S. Rep. 539) ; the case of Illinois Central Railroad vs. Mc- 
 Lean County (17 111. 291), the Rock Island Bridge case and the Sand- 
 bar case. Two cases in the United States Supreme Court are Lewis vs. 
 Lewis, 7 How. 776 and Forsythe vs. Reynolds, 14 Law Ed. 729. The 
 McCormick case was intriguing to him both because it would display his 
 talents against the famous Reverdy Johnson (who had been Attorney 
 General, of the United States) representing McCormick, while Lincoln 
 was associated with Edwin M. Stanton and George Harding of Philadel- 
 phia on the side of the plaintiff, Manny; but also because it would involve 
 discussion of agriculture, well-known to him, and machinery, a favorite 
 subject of his,, since he was himself an inventor. Lincoln studied the 
 testimony and law, prepared an extensive brief and journeyed to Cincin- 
 nati, where the case was to be tried, in, great hopes. 
 
 There he met Stanton who is said to have remarked, "Where did that 
 long-armed baboon come from?" and that he wouldn't associate with 
 "such a damned, gawky, long-armed ape as that." However that may be, 
 it was arranged that only two speeches should be made on each side and 
 Lincoln lost any chance to use his argument and brief. On leav- 
 ing Cincinnati he told a young representative of his client who 
 had struck up an acquaintance with Lincoln and took long walks 
 in the evening with him that he was going back to Illinois to prepare 
 for the Eastern lawyers. "They have got as far as Cincinnati now; they 
 will soon be in Illinois. I will be ready for them." Lincoln's lawyer- 
 quality of making use of anything or anyone, whether he liked them or 
 not, is seen from the fact that he, personally, selected Stanton, a Democrat, 
 as Secretary of War, and endured his waspishness because of his value, 
 with the result that Stanton, on Lincoln's death-bed, said, "Now he be- 
 longs to the ages." 
 
 The Rock Island bridge case also interested Lincoln since it gave him 
 a chance to utilize the knowledge he had acquired while a surveyor and 
 because he had always been an apostle and warm advocate of public 
 improvements. The Rock Island Railroad had built the first bridge across 
 the Mississippi which was violently opposed by the river interests, who 
 contended that the 'building of piers in the river constituted an obstruction 
 to navigation. This particular suit was to recover damages sustained by 
 a steamboat, the Effie Afton, in consequence of the boat being driven 
 against thq pier by the current, as they claimed. 
 
 Chicago had a population at that time of 100,000 : St. Louis 150,000. 
 The river towns foresaw their doom if railroads could transport freight 
 over these bridges without unloading and trans-shipping and had raised 
 
 13 
 
a pool of $500,000 for defense. After 12 days of trial and four days of 
 argument, in which Lincoln made the closing address to the jury, the 
 jury disagreed. This case made the law on bridges for the whole 
 country. 
 
 The case known as the Sand-bar case had to do with the title to a 
 large amount of valuable land added by accretion to the riparian lands at 
 Chicago. The Illinois Central case is, perhaps, the best known of Lin- 
 coln's cases because of the dispute as to fees. Under its charter the rail- 
 road pays to the State a part of its earnings in lieu* of other taxes on the 
 capital stock. McLean County, in spite of the exemption from taxation 
 contained in the act, assessed the property of the railroad just as it did 
 other property. Lincoln himself described the issue as "the largest law 
 question that can now be got up in the State." It would run into millions 
 and bankrupt the company. Although beaten in the lower court by his 
 old partners, Stuart and Logan, he won on appeal to the Supreme Court. 
 When he presented a bill for $2,000, the official who handled it said, "Why, 
 this is as much as a first-class lawyer would have charged," adding that 
 it was "as much as Daniel Webster himself would have charged." Lin- 
 coln promptly sued for $5,000, afterwards amended by Lincoln's credit of 
 $200 paid, judgment and execution was issued and paid. 
 
 The railroad afterwards excused the suit by claiming that it was not 
 contested but that "the payment of so large a fee to a western lawyer 
 would embarrass the general counsel with the board of directors in New 
 York." No bad feeling ensued, however, because Lincoln afterwards rep- 
 resented the railroad in several suits and his last case was one involving 
 $121,000 in which he defended the company. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that Lincoln was not a great lawyer. 
 Possibly this misconception has been based upon the fact that many of 
 his cases did not involve large sums; for instance, one Supreme Court 
 appeal (Byrne vs. Stout, 15 111. 180), concerned a hog worth only $3.00, 
 but this theory leaves out of account the fact that his practice began in 
 a pioneer neighborhood, not yet concerned with large investments, as 
 well as the fact that the same objection would rule out those who opposed 
 him in these cases. As we have seen, these were men of large caliber. 
 His standing, as compared with these able men, is shown by a study of the 
 results which he obtained in his contests in the Supreme Court of Illinois 
 against such opponents. 
 
 In the 51 cases where he appeared alone, he won 31, an average of 
 .608. In the 124 cases in which he was associated with others, he won 65, 
 or an average of .524. In the cases in which he brought the appeal, his 
 average, when he was alone, was .609 and when he was associated with 
 others .521. When he got into his stride, his clients were the most im- 
 portant in the community. For an example, among others, he represented 
 the City of Springfield and the town of Petersburg as well as judges of 
 the courts before whom he practiced whose rights had been attacked. 
 He acted also for the County of Logan whose County Seat was named 
 Lincoln. As to this, when asked whether the County Seat was named 
 after him, he said,, "Well, it was named after I was." 
 
 He represented, also, many railroads — the Illinois Central, the Rock 
 Island, the Chicago & Alton, the Terre Haute & Alton and the Peters- 
 burg Railroads. In the five years preceding 1860, he appeared in 50 
 cases in the United States District Court. The number of cases in which 
 he appeared in the state courts is not known, our only record being 175 
 cases in the Supreme Court of Illinois, of which, it is to be noticed, over 
 one-half occurred after his return from Congress in 1849. These cases 
 have been cited by the Supreme Court of practically every state. The 
 
 14 
 
record shows that Lincoln was one of the truly great lawyers of his 
 generation. 
 
 Such, in a very brief and inadequate form, are some of the high 
 points in the life of Abraham Lincoln as a practicing lawyer. It would 
 seem, superficially, that a discussion of Lincoln as a lawyer would end 
 with his entrance into the presidency. With most men and under most 
 circumstances this would be true, but the training, methods and viewpoints 
 of a lawyer had become so large a part of Lincoln and the conditions and 
 problems he encountered during the 'Civil War were such that any com- 
 plete account of Lincoln, The Lawyer, must necessarily cover his political 
 life as well as his professional activities. 
 
 I had expected to be able to open up this branch of the, subject, even 
 if briefly, but I find, like most riders of hobbies, that I have strayed too 
 long in the highways and byways of his life at the Bar. You have been 
 very patient with me so far and that makes me bold to trespass further 
 for a few moments to outline this point in the hope that you will your- 
 selves explore thoroughly this very fruitful field of American Constitutional 
 History. 
 
 The main episodes of Lincoln's political life prior to his election as 
 President were, of course, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and his Cooper 
 Union speech. Study the Lincoln-Douglas debates — not as history — but 
 as the argument of a great lawyer establishing the proposition that the 
 extension of slavery tended to discredit republican institutions.* See how 
 Lincoln, without anger or vituperation, and refusing, as a lawyer does, 
 to be led into personalities or factional discussions, fencing them off with 
 good humor, held Douglas to one question, Is the Dred Scott decision 
 good law? 
 
 His friends to whom he read it told him before the Freeport speech 
 that it was a "damn fool" speech and would lose him the senatorship. It 
 did lose the senatorship but it won him the presidency. His whole 
 course in the debate was a maneuver leading up to the question — fatal to 
 Douglas whichever way he answered it — Can the people of a territory in 
 any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United 
 States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State 
 Constitution? A great lawyer had staked his whole case on a single, sound 
 point; had undergone a temporary defeat to insure ultimate victory, not 
 only for himself but also for his client, the people. 
 
 In the same way and with the same thought in mind, study Lincoln's 
 Cooper Union speech, not as an oration — although it is one of the great 
 orations — nor as a political argument — although it made him President — 
 but as the argument of a great lawyer, inspired by the subject and the 
 occasion. 
 
 Douglas had said that our Fathers, when they framed the govern- 
 ment under which we live, understood the question of slavery just as 
 well or even better than we do now. Lincoln endorsed this statement 
 and then proceeded to show the record, discussing the Continental Con- 
 gress, the Ordinances of 1784 and 1787, the Constitutional Convention, the 
 first Congress under the Constitution, the action of Congress since that 
 time, the Dred Scott case and, finally, the John Brown Raid. 
 
 The patient days of labor in verification of fact and months of in- 
 vestigation which Lincoln had bestowed upon the preparation of this 
 address bore abundant fruit. The audience had been curious to see this 
 rude child of the people and exaggerated rumors of his wit — the worst 
 forerunner of an orator — had reached the East, but this address dispelled 
 every thought of him as anything but an earnest, high-minded, scholarly 
 man, bred to the knowledge of the Republic's history and political institu- 
 
 15 
 
tions, who had mastered the problem that tormented the Nation. With 
 the exception of a few "purple patches" of vivid phrase, it was an argu- 
 ment which convinced a great audience, including all the learned and 
 cultured of his party in New York, editors, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, 
 merchants, critics, and furnished a logical and firm foundation upon which 
 the diverse opinions which made up the Republican Party could unite 
 for one great purpose — the preservation of the Union. 
 
 The study of Lincoln's attitude and handling of the many perplexing 
 legal questions which arose during the presidency is an interesting and 
 fruitful subject, but we shall detain you no longer than to merely enumer- 
 ate some of them. Lincoln himself put the fundamental question when 
 he asked, "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties 
 of its own people or too weak to maintain its existence?" Grotius classified 
 war as either public or private. What was to be the legal 1 status of the 
 Civil War? Was it a rebellion and were the Confederate traitors, or was 
 it a war, in which case they would be belligerents? You will find that the 
 view of the administration, in a general way, was that it was an insur- 
 rection but that when Lincoln was faced with the question in the Trent 
 case, his training as a lawyer constrained him to oppose public opinion 
 by liberating Mason and Slidell. 
 
 You will find worthy of study the legal position of the war powers 
 under the Constitution. There were, as usual, three viewpoints: the strict 
 Constructionists, who held that the Government should stick to the Con- 
 stitution even in war; the loose Constructionists, who held that the Con- 
 stitution was not operative during such a crisis as the Civil War pre- 
 sented; and the third position held that while the Constitution is binding 
 during war, it contains extraordinary powers which justify severe measures. 
 
 President Lincoln construed the war power to include the right to 
 determine the existence of rebellion and call forth the militia to suppress 
 it; the right to increase the regular army by calling for volunteers beyond 
 the authorized total; the right to> suspend the habeas corpus privilege; 
 the right to proclaim martial law; the right to place persons under arrest 
 without warrant and without judicially showing the cause of detention; 
 the right to seize citizens' property if such seizure should become indis- 
 pensable to the successful prosecution of the war; the right to spend money 
 of the Treasury of the United States without Congressional appropria- 
 tion; the right to suppress newspapers; and the right to do unusual things 
 by proclamation. The correctness of his judgment as a lawyer is en- 
 forced by consideration of the fact that, as a rule, though not without 
 exception, he was sustained iby the courts. 
 
 At the same time while claiming, as many contended, extraordinary 
 powers far beyond the ordinary limits, Lincoln's training as a lawyer 
 led him in practice to exercise leniency and expediency in administration, 
 as was shown in the Vallandigham case and in what Lincoln himself called 
 his "leg cases" — technical desertion in the face of the enemy — and in his 
 ignoring of scandalous and venomous articles of the newspapers. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking example of the effect of Lincoln's years at 
 the Bar upon his career and, conduct as a statesman is seen in the study 
 of the Emancipation Proclamation. He was urged from the very begin- 
 ning of the War by the Abolitionist Party to free the slaves as a measure 
 of justice and the carrying out of their theory that the war was fought 
 for the purpose of ending slavery. As a lawyer, Lincoln was strongly 
 imbued with the sense of the right of property and the fact that 
 slavery had grown up under the protection of the law. He had, 
 therefore, made valiant attempts to put through measures for compensa- 
 tion to those who should emancipate their slaves. In the end, he issued 
 the proclamation as a war measure alone. 
 
 16 
 
His years as a lawyer had taught him marvelous powers of condensa- 
 tion and concentration of statement. He said, "I believe I shall never be 
 old enough to speak without embarassment when I have nothing to say." 
 Again, he said, "I am never easy when I am handling a thought until I 
 have bounded it north and bounded it south; bounded it east and bounded 
 It west." He said once of another, "He can compress the most words 
 into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." His Gettysburg address, 
 which followed a two-hour oration, contains only 270 words. Perhaps 
 none of his state papers illustrate this great faculty more than the close 
 of the Emancipation Proclamation: "And upon this act, sincerely be- 
 lieved to' be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military 
 necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
 favor of Almighty God." You will notice t'hat by the use of 15 words, he 
 announced three fundamental grounds: First, Justice; Second, Constitu- 
 tional Authority; Third, War Necessity. 
 
 Lincoln was a master of words, the possessor of a unique and in- 
 dividual style founded upon his assimilation of a few great books — the 
 Bible, Shakespeare, Blackstone, Aesop's Fables, Pilgrims' Progress and 
 Robert Burns. As to each of these, he 'became "the master of one book," 
 especially of what Lowell called "the grand simplicities of the Bible." 
 His phrases will last as long as the English language exists. 
 
 "The mystic chords of memory stretch from every battlefield and 
 patriot grave to every loving heart and hearthstone, and over this broad 
 land will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely 
 they will t>e, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 "I leave you hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in, your bosom 
 . until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and 
 equal." 
 
 "No law is stronger than the public sentiment where it is to be en- 
 forced." 
 
 "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us 
 to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." 
 
 Lincoln 'became the active director of an army of 2,000,000 men, of 
 whom 300,000 perished, engaged in the greatest war of 'his century and the 
 greatest war until our day. The Rebellion rwas the first test of a democ- 
 racy at war, faced by a struggle for life, in which Lincoln developed a 
 new technique in dealing with this unprecedented problem. 
 
 Thirty-five diligent years in which he burned the midnight oil in the 
 study of the origin and development of our Constitution and Government, 
 enabled him to master Constitutional problems more perplexing and more 
 intricate than those presented to any one man in the course of history. 
 
 Conceding, as we do, the peculiar and inherent strength of his personality 
 and genius, we submit that the 24 years of Lincoln's work as a lawyer 
 was the training ground which produced our greatest American, a shining 
 and replendent figure of the history of all time, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 The Great Emancipator. 
 
 17 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63B6EV1A C001 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. PITTSBURGH 
 
 3 0112 031799346