CHAPTER XI. TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF LINCOLN WHO KNEW HIM IN ILLINOIS Hon. W. H. T. Wakefield--Hon. D. W. Wilder--Dr. B. P. Gardner--Hon. J. K. Vandemark--A. Jeffrey--Dr. Arch E. McNeal--Charles McGrew--Edward Buller--Joseph Stafford-- Judge A. D. Norton--J. L. Morrell--Mahlon Ross--L. Wilson-- H. K. Magie--Hon. James Tuttle--Col. P. S. Rutherford--Judge Robert Leachman--Hon. Orin B. Gould--M. S. Gowin--Col. R. G. Ingersoll--Leonard W. Volk--Joseph Jefferson--Hon. E. B. Washburn--Hon. E. M. Haines. I will next present the evidence that I have gleaned from the lips or pens of personal friends of Lincoln who were acquainted with him in Illinois. The relations of these persons to Lincoln were, for the most part, less intimate than were those of the persons named in the preceding chapter; but all of them enjoyed in no small degree his confidence and esteem. HON. W. H. T. WAKEFIELD. Mr. Wakefield, our first witness, is a son of the distinguished jurist, Judge J. A. Wakefield. He is a prominent journalist, and was the nominee of the United Labor party, for Vice-President, in the Presidential contest of 1888. In a letter to the author, dated Lawrence, Kan., Sept. 28, 1880, Mr. Wakefield says: "My father, the late Judge J. A. Wakefield, was a life-long friend of Lincoln's, they having served through the Black Hawk war together and been in the Illinois Legislature together, during which latter time Lincoln boarded with my father in Vandalia, which was then the state capital. I remember of his visiting my father at Galena, in 1844 or 1845. They continued to correspond until Lincoln's death. My father was a member of the Methodist church and frequently spoke of and lamented Lincoln's Infidelity, and referred to the many arguments between them on the subject. The noted minister, Peter Cartwright, boarded with my father at the same time that Lincoln did, and my father and mother told me of the many theological and philosophical arguments indulged in by Lincoln and Cartwright, and of the fact that they always attracted many interested listeners and usually ended by Cartwright's getting very angry and the spectators being convulsed with laughter at Lincoln's dry wit and humorous comparisons."