"HON. E. EMBREE,

"CONFIDENTIAL.

"SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 25, 1849.

"Dear Sir: I am about to ask a favor of you, one which I hope will not cost you much. I understand the General Land Office is about to be given to Illinois, and that Mr. Ewing desires Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, to be the man. I give you my word, the appointment of Mr. Butterfield will be an egregious political blunder. It will give offence to the whole Whig party here, and be worse than a dead loss to the administration of so much of its patronage. Now, if you can conscientiously do so, I wish you to write General Taylor at once, saying that either I, or the man I recommend, should in your opinion be appointed to that office, if any one from Illinois shall be. I restrict my request to Illinois because you may have a man from your own state, and I do not ask to interfere with that. "Your friend as ever,

"A. LINCOLN."

"SPRINGFIELD, June 5, 1849.

"Dear William: Your two letters were received last night. I have a great many letters to write, and so cannot write very long ones. There must be some mistake about Walter Davis saying I promised him the post-office. I did not so promise him. I did tell him that if the distribution of the offices should fall into my hands, he should have something; and if I shall be convinced he has said any more than this, I shall be disappointed. I said this much to him because, as I

understand, he is of good character, is one of the young men, is of the mechanics, and always faithful and never troublesome; a Whig, and is poor, with the support of a widow mother thrown almost exclusively on him by the death of his brother. If these are wrong reasons, then I have been wrong; but I have certainly not been. selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he was against me, and for Baker.

Lincoln went into the fight for the General Land Office actively, received support in many directions, but failed. The administration offered to make him either governor or secretary of Oregon, and he made a special trip to Washington, just after the expiration of his term, to discuss the subject. He was rather inclined to accept, feeling that his attitude toward the Mexican War had probably ruined him politically, but the opposition of Mrs. Lincoln led him to decline and settle down to active practice in the law.

CHAPTER VI

LINCOLN AS A LAWYER

WITH little hope of a political future, gloom at home, and a constant, grim determination to make the best of what fate allowed him, Lincoln settled quietly into the routine of Springfield and circuit practice. A Chicago lawyer, named Grant Goodrich, with a good business, offered him a partnership, which he declined on the ground that, as he already tended toward consumption, hard study and confinement would kill him. He therefore undertook his part of the work of Lincoln and Herndon, spending half of the year at home, and half around the state, following Judge Davis, and there is every reason to believe that the travelling life was more agreeable. On Saturday nights it was customary for the judges and lawyers who lived within reach to go home, but of this opportunity Lincoln seldom or never availed himself, preferring to spend his Sundays chatting at the tavern.

In the Springfield office he spent a good deal of his time on Euclid, poetry, and history, and more on the newspapers, conversation, and stories, somewhat to the annoyance of his more methodical

partner, who failed to enjoy Lincoln's habit of reading the papers aloud when they two were alone. Law was not neglected by him, however, especially when a case was at hand, and he often studied late into the night, making such progress, through his fundamental clearness of understanding, that his reputation increased very rapidly, even for legal arguments to the court, but particularly for jury trials, where his colloquial, honest, and racy manner had its full opportunity. His speech was never technical or pompous, but always familiar. He "reckoned it would be fair

to let in that," and if the court overruled him he said, "Well, I reckon I must be wrong." He was leisurely, and when Herndon suggested that he was too slow in speech and manner he turned his long jackknife in a circle, and then a small penknife with the same speed at the circumference, to show that the one which took longest in completing the circle had travelled farthest, and he in turn advised the younger partner never to aim over the heads of the people he was talking to. It is significant that during his presidency he told Mr. Colfax that in all his time at the bar he never found an opponent's case stronger than he expected, and usually found it weaker.

With an earnest, honest, and simple mind, and little aptitude for technicalities, his strength naturally lay in cases where the fundamental right

was clear. He frequently advised the dropping of cases which could only be won by technical adroitness. Once when Herndon, who reveals his own elastic standards with unhesitating frankness, had drawn a fictitious plea, and explained to his partner that, although it was not sound, he had overheard remarks of the opposing counsel which showed that they would not be able to disprove it, Lincoln advised its withdrawal. After he had won in the prosecution of a murder trial, he was for a long time haunted by a bare doubt of the prisoner's sanity. He induced his young friend Lamon, when they had been retained on the same case, to return part of a joint fee agreed upon in advance, because he thought afterward that it was excessive. In a suit against a railroad company, before judgment was pronounced, he arose to point out that his opponents had failed to prove all that was justly due them in offset, and the amount which he explained might have been found was allowed in the judgment. However, he was not beyond provocation. When the Illinois Central contested a bill of $2000, Lincoln sued for $5000 and won.

These characteristics became widely known. As he for years went over the whole circuit, he was always among friends, never facing a jury without seeing familiar countenances before him. To the popularity brought him by his honesty