Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 1 (of 2)Herndon, William Henry
History
Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 1 (of 2)
Herndon, William Henry
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
in it, which you are perfectly welcome to share with me if you choose.'
'Where is your room?' he asked.
"'Upstairs,' said I, pointing to the stairs leading from the store to
my room. Without saying a word he took his saddle-bags on his arm, went
upstairs, set them down on the floor, came down again, and with a face
beaming with pleasure and smiles, exclaimed, 'Well, Speed, I'm moved.'"
William Butler, who was prominent in the removal of the capital from
Vandalia to Springfield, took no little interest in Lincoln, while a
member of the Legislature. After his removal to Springfield, Lincoln
boarded at Butler's house for several years. He became warmly attached
to the family, and it is probable the matter of pay never entered
Butler's mind. He was not only able but willing to befriend the young
lawyer in this and many other ways.
Stephen T. Logan was judge of the Circuit court, and Stephen A. Douglas
was prosecuting attorney. Among the attorneys we find many promising
spirits. Edward D. Baker, John T. Stuart, Cyrus Walker, Samuel H. Treat,
Jesse B. Thomas, George Forquer, Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, John J.
Hardin, Schuyler Strong, A. T. Bledsoe, and Josiah Lamborn--a galaxy of
names, each destined to shed more or less lustre on the history of
the State. While I am inclined to believe that Lincoln did not, after
entering Stuart's office, do as much deep and assiduous studying as
people generally credit him with, yet I am confident he absorbed not a
little learning by contact with the great minds who thronged about the
courts and State Capitol. The books of Stuart and Lincoln, during 1837,
show a practice more extensive than lucrative, for while they received a
number of fees, only two or there of them reached fifty dollars; and one
of these has a credit of: "Coat to Stuart, $15.00," showing that they
were compelled, now and then, even to "trade out" their earnings. The
litigation was as limited in importance as in extent. There were no
great corporations, as in this progressive day, retaining for counsel
the brains of the bar in every county seat, but the greatest as well
as the least had to join the general scramble for practice. The courts
consumed as much time deciding who had committed an assault or a
trespass on a neighbor's ground, as it spent in the solution
of questions arising on contracts, or unravelling similar legal
complications. Lawyers depended for success, not on their knowledge of
the law or their familiarity with its under-lying principles, but placed
their reliance rather on their frontier oratory and the influence of
their personal bearing before the jury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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