Lincoln was associated at the Springfield bar with many famous men, and there was a keen rivalry among them. Stephen A. Douglas, David Davis, James Shields, Edward D. Baker, John M. Palmer, Lyman Trumbull, Oliver H. Browning, Shelby M. Cullom, and others afterwards sat in the United States Senate and some of them held positions in the Cabinets of Presidents. Others were afterwards Governors of States and members of the House of Representatives; others led armies during the war with Mexico and the war between the States. One of the strongest groups of men that ever gathered at the capital of a State was to be found in Springfield in those days, and Lincoln was their equal in ability and learning and the superior of many of them in the qualities that make a statesman. They recognized him as their superior on many occasions, and whether or not he was the ablest lawyer on the circuit, there was never any doubt that he was the most popular. He was always a great favorite with the younger members of the bar because of his sympathy and good-nature. He never used the arts of a demagogue; he was never a toady; he was always ready to do an act of kindness; he was generous with his mind and with his purse; although he never asked for help, was always ready to give it; and while he received everybody's confidence, he rarely gave his own in return. Whatever his cares and anxieties may have been, he never inflicted them upon others; he never wounded by his wit; his humor was never harsh or rude; he endeavored to lighten the labors and the cares of others, and beneath his awkward manner was a gentle refinement and an amiable disposition. For twenty-five years he practised at the Springfield bar. He was not a great lawyer according to the standard of his profession, but the testimony of his associates is that he was a good one, enjoying the confidence of the judiciary, the bar, and the public to a remarkable degree. He was conspicuous for several honorable traits, and, above all, for that sense of moral responsibility that can always distinguish between duty to a client and duty to society and the truth. On the wrong side of a case he was always weak, and, realizing this, he often persuaded his clients to give up litigation rather than compel him to argue against truth and justice. Leonard Swett, of Chicago, for years an intimate associate, and himself one of the most famous of American lawyers, says that, "sometimes, after Lincoln entered upon a criminal case, the conviction that his client was guilty would affect him with a sort of panic. On one occasion he turned suddenly to his associate and said, 'Swett, the man is guilty; you defend him, I can't,' and so gave up his share of a large fee. "At another time, when he was engaged with Judge S. C. Parks in defending a man accused of larceny, he said, 'If you can say anything for the man, do it, I can't; if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, and convict him.'