from any given state of facts. So he applied the principles of law to the transactions of men with great clearness and precision. He was a close reasoner. He reasoned by analogy, and enforced his views by apt illustration. His mode of speaking was generally of a plain and unimpassioned character, and yet he was the author of some of the most beautiful and eloquent passages in our language, which, if collected, would form a valuable contribution to American literature. The most punctilious honor ever marked his professional and private life."

Judge Breese, responding to the resolutions, said:

"For my single self, I have for a quarter of a century regarded Mr. Lincoln as the finest lawyer I ever knew, and of a professional bearing so high-toned and honorable as justly, and without derogating from the claims of others, entitling him to be presented to the profession as a model well worthy of the closest imitation."

Judge Thomas Drummond, of Chicago, then a member of the Federal Court in the city, upon this same occasion said:

"I have no hesitation in saying that he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known. With a voice by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when excited, in its shrill tones, sometimes almost disagreeable; without any of the personal graces of the orator; without much in the outward man indicating superiority of intellect; without great quickness of perceptionstill, his mind was so vigorous, his comprehension so exact and clear, and his judgment so sure, that he easily mastered the intricacies of his profession, and became one of the ablest reasoners and most impressive speakers at our bar. With a probity of character

known of all, with an intuitive insight into the human heart, with a clearness of statement which was itself an argument, with uncommon power and felicity of illustration, often, it is true, of a plain and homely kind, and with that sincerity and earnestness of manner which carried conviction, he was, perhaps, one of the most successful jury lawyers we have ever had in the state. He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He never intentionally misrepresented the evidence of a witness or the argument of an opponent. He met both squarely, and, if he could not explain the one or answer the other, substantially admitted it. He never misstated the law according to his own intelligent view of it."

Judge David Davis, then of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered a eulogy on Lincoln as a lawyer at Indianapolis, in which he said:

"In all the elements that constitute the great lawyer, he (Mr. Lincoln) had few equals. He was great both at Nisi Prius and before an appellate tribunal. He seized the strong points of a case, and presented them with clearness and great compactness. A vein of humor never deserted him, and he was always able to chain the attention of court and jury when the cause was the most uninteresting, by the appropriateness of his anecdotes."

Arnold, one of his biographers, and also a fellow lawyer, at Indianapolis, in speaking of both Douglas and Lincoln, said:

"Both were strong jury lawyers. Lincoln was, on the whole, the strongest we ever had in Illinois. Both were distinguished for their ability in seizing and bringing out distinctly and clearly the real points in a case. Both were happy in the examination of witnesses, but

I think Lincoln was the stronger of the two in crossexamination."

Lincoln lived the lawyer and loved the law, but more than all else he lived and loved justice.

He was the chancellor in the court of conscience before he was the counsellor in a court of law.

Whenever there was conflict in the judgments of these two courts with Lincoln, the former was paramount.

CHAPTER X

LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN

"Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good."-St. Paul. "Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason the law which is perfection of reason."-SIR EDWARD COKE.

PROBABLY he never read John Stuart Mill, Doctor Whateley, or Sir William Hamilton, yet in logic he was the peer of all of them. But what is logic? says some one. Boiled down, it is only the "science or art of exact reasoning" or "the laws according to which the processes of pure thinking should be conducted" or "the science of the laws of thought."

Lincoln was, first, last, and all the time a "thinker." In speaking he was merely telling the thought on the platform. In writing he was merely telling the thought on paper.

Reason, calm, candid, calculating reason, was the gift of God, as Paul characterizes it, which bridged his "passion for knowledge" to his "passion for justice." It was the gift by which he sought and obtained dominion over his fellow men.

Herndon, his old partner, who associated with him in the law office for nearly a score of years, had extraordinary opportunity of observing the mental powers and operations of Lincoln, and what he has written may well command our attention:

"He had no faith, and no respect for 'say so's,' come though they might from tradition or authority. Thus everything had to run through the crucible, and be

It is from this Not only was he only had he con

tested by the fires of his analytic mind; and when at last he did speak, his utterances rang out with the clear and keen ring of gold upon the counters of the understanding. He reasoned logically through analogy and comparison. All opponents dreaded his originality of idea, his condensation, definition, and force of expression; and woe be to the man who hugged to his bosom a secret error if Lincoln got on the chase of it. . . . His conscience, his heart, and all the faculties and qualities of his mind bowed submissively to the despotism of his reason. He lived and acted from the standard of reason-that throne of logic, home of principle the realm of Deity in man. point Mr. Lincoln must be viewed. cautious, patient, and enduring; not centration and great continuity of thought; but he had profound analytical power. His vision was clear, and he was emphatically the master of statement. His pursuit of the truth, as before mentioned, was indefatigable. He reasoned from well-chosen principles with such clearness, force, and directness that the tallest intellects in the land bowed to him. He was the strongest man I ever saw, looking at him from the elevated standpoint of reason and logic. He came down from that height with irresistible and crashing force. His Cooper Institute and other printed speeches will prove this; but his speeches before the courts-especially the Supreme Court of Illinois-if they had been preserved, would demonstrate it still more plainly."

This mental sketch is a splendid summary of our logician, but it falls short of the methods which Lincoln used in bringing about the triumphs of his rea

son.

* Herndon, vol. II, pp. 304 et seq.