technical lawyer. . . . He was assiduous in study and tireless in search of legal principles. He was industrious and very thrifty, delighted to make and save money, and died a rich man. ... Lincoln was five years younger, and yet his mind and make-up so impressed Logan that he was invited into the partnership with him. Logan's example had a good effect on Lincoln, and it stimulated him to unusual endeavors. For the first time he realized the effectiveness of order and method in work, but his old habits eventually overcame him. . . Logan was scrupulously exact, and used extraordinary care in the preparation of papers. His words were well chosen, and his style of composition was stately and formal."

This partnership between Logan and Lincoln lasted about two years. They were both candidates for Congress at the same time, and the presumption is, with more or less evidence to support it, that their rivalry brought some bitterness between them. At all events, it was at this time, in 1843, that Lincoln retired from the firm, and invited William H. Herndon, who was just beginning the practice of law, to become his junior partner.

Herndon himself says:

"I was young in the practice and was painfully aware of my want of ability and experience; but when he remarked in his earnest, honest way, 'Billy, I can trust you, if you can trust me,' I felt relieved, and accepted the generous proposal. It has always been a matter of pride with me that during our long partnership, continuing on until it was dissolved by the bullet of the assassin Booth, we never had any personal controversy or disagreement. I never stood in his way for political honors or office, and I believe we under

stood each other perfectly. In after years, when he became more prominent, and our practice grew to respectable proportions, other ambitious practitioners undertook to supplant me in the partnership. One of the latter, more zealous than wise, charged that I was in a certain way weakening the influence of the firm. I am flattered to know that Lincoln turned on this last named individual with the retort 'I know my own business, I reckon. I know Billy Herndon better than anybody, and even if what you say of him is true I intend to stick by him.'"

While Lincoln was a partner of Logan's, Herndon relates the following incident:

"I have before me a letter written by Lincoln at this time to the proprietors of a wholesale store in Louisville, for whom suit had been brought, in which, after notifying the latter of the sale of certain real estate in satisfaction of their judgment, he adds: 'As to the real estate we cannot attend to it. We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton, a trustworthy man, and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such business.'

Mr. Herndon comments:

"He gravely signs the firm name, Logan and Lincoln, to this unlawyerlike letter and sends it on its way. Logan never would have written such a letter."

Whether Logan "would have written such a letter” or not we do not know, neither need we care. Lincoln wrote it because he was true then, as he was true always, to his convictions as to what was and what was not a lawyer's business, and what he did in this case squares exactly with his sense of professional duty and honor and represents his own practical distinction of

what was "law" business and what was "real estate" business.

Lincoln was a lawyer, first, last and all the time, and be it said in his honor that he never lowered the professional standards in his twenty-four years of practice.

He was not a "money-getter," neither was he anybody's "hired man." ." I think the public will most respectfully differ from Mr. Herndon in saying that this was an "unlawyerlike letter." This illustrates the difference between the point of view of Lincoln and the point of view of Herndon.

The prerogatives of the senior partner in a law firm seem to have been superior in that early day to what they are now.

Mr. Lincoln upon his retirement from the firm of Logan and Lincoln in 1843 seemed desirous of being the senior partner in a new firm, and it was really from the year 1843 forward that he developed and became distinguished as a great lawyer who won verdicts and judgments.

But his early campaigns for Congress upon his own account, as well as his campaigns for the Whig tickets upon the party's account consumed much of his time in his earlier years. His election to Congress in 1846 suspended for the time being his activities in the law.

At all events, what he did prior to that time was so largely preparatory to his future contests and triumphs that it deserves no further discussion here. The really great lawyer will appear upon his return to Springfield in 1849, and from thenceforward to his election as President.

CHAPTER VIII

LINCOLN THE LAWYER

(CONTINUED)

LINCOLN had just passed the fortieth mile-stone when, at the end of his one term in Congress, he returned from Washington to resume the practice of the law.

As his contact with the leading men of Springfield had stimulated him to a deeper and broader study of the law in his earlier days, so now the big, brainy men of Washington and the East whom he had met during these last two years had given him a new stimulus for further education and excellence in the law.

As never before he proceeded at once "to stir the gifts of God within him" in wider, deeper study of the law, the sciences, and history.

Herndon relates a marked change in Lincoln's pursuit of the law:

"I could notice a difference in Lincoln's movement as a lawyer from this time forward. He had begun to realize a certain lack of discipline a want of mental training and method. Ten years had wrought some change in the law, and more in the lawyers, of Illinois. The conviction had settled in the minds of the people that the pyrotechnics of court-room and stump oratory did not necessarily imply extensive or profound ability in the lawyer who resorted to it. The courts were becoming graver and more learned, and the lawyer was

learning as a preliminary and indispensable condition to success that he must be a close reasoner, besides having at command a broad knowledge of the principles on which the statutory law is constructed. . . And now he began to make up for time lost in politics by studying the law in earnest. No man had greater power of application than he. Once fixing his mind on any subject, nothing could interfere with or disturb him. Frequently I would go out on the circuit with him. We, usually, at the little country inns occupied the same bed. In most cases the beds were too short for him, and his feet would hang over the foot-board, thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing a candle on a chair at the head of the bed, he would read and study for hours. I have known him to study in this position till two o'clock in the morning. Meanwhile I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be safely and soundly asleep."

Holland, in his biography, at page 124, notes the same change in habits of study and research:

"On returning to his home, Mr. Lincoln entered upon the duties of his profession, and devoted himself to them through a series of years, less disturbed by diversions into State and national politics than he had been during any previous period of his business life. . . .

"Mr. Lincoln's lack of early advantages and the limited character of his education were constant subjects of regret with him. His intercourse with members of Congress and with the cultivated society of Washington had, without doubt, made him feel his deficiencies more keenly than ever before. . .

"It was at this period that he undertook to improve himself somewhat by attention to mathematics, and actually mastered the first six books of Euclid."