CHAPTER IV

[iv-1] Though under very different circumstances, Lincoln’s elation seems not unlike that of another famous man whose later life touched his at several points. The first dollar earned by Frederick Douglass, on free soil, in New Bedford, was paid to him, as he tells us, for stowing away a pile of coal for Mrs. Ephraim Peabody, the wife of a Unitarian minister. “I was not long in accomplishing the job,” runs his story, “when the dear lady put into my hand two silver half-dollars. To understand the emotion which swelled my heart as I clasped this money, realizing that I had no master who could take it from me,--that it was mine,--that my hands were my own, and could earn more of the precious coin,--one must have been in some sense himself a slave.” (Douglass, 210.)

[iv-2] Lamon, pointing out some inconsistencies in the details of this anecdote as it is generally quoted, expresses doubts concerning its authenticity. He evidently did not know how often Lincoln had told the story to different persons. Their versions, as might be expected, vary somewhat, but they agree in the essential facts. See: Carpenter, 96-98; William D. Kelley, in Rice, 279-80; Leonard Swett, in Rice, 457-58; Holland, 33-34; Brooks, 38; Pratt, 16-18; Morgan, 27-28; Lamon, 72; McClure’s _Stories_, 17-18; Hanaford, 156-58; Boyden, 83-84; Irelan, xvi, 62-64; Tarbell, i, 38-39; Browne, 72-73; Banks, 14-16; Ward, 277-78; Thayer, 169-71; Ludlow, 66-68; Curtis’s _Lincoln_, 24-25; Whipple, 62-63; Selby, 52-53; Raymond, 754; Onstot, 51-52; Egbert L. Viele, in _Scribner’s Magazine_, October, 1878, p. 817; Alban J. Conant, in _McClure’s Magazine_, March, 1909, p. 514; interview with Governor Frank Fuller, in the New York _Times_, October 1, 1911, p. 10.

[iv-3] Browne’s _Lincoln and Men_, i, 259-61, 356; ii, 90-91.

[iv-4] Holland, 93.

[iv-5] See Lincoln to Speed, June 19, 1841, in _Works_, i, 168-75, and in Lamon, 318-19; also, Gibson W. Harris, in Columbia (Ky.) _Spectator_, January 27, 1905.

[iv-6] Oldroyd, 394-95.

[iv-7] Onstot, 41-44.

[iv-8] Lincoln to Whitney, December 18, 1857, in _Works_, xi, 103.

[iv-9] Brockett, 702-03; McClure’s _Yarns_, 341-42; Barrett (New), i, 154-55; interview with Mrs. Rose Linder Wilkinson, in Chicago _Times-Herald_, September 11, 1895.

[iv-10] The nature of these kindnesses may be inferred from the following despatch:--

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 26, 1863.

HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.:

Your son Dan has just left me, with my order to the Secretary of War, to administer to him the oath of allegiance, discharge him, and send him to you.

A. LINCOLN.

(_Works_, ix, 275; see, also, _ibid._, 272.)

[iv-11] Boston _Advertiser_, February 12, 1909, p. 7.

[iv-12] Stowe, 21; Carpenter, 245; Browne, 229; French, 80; McClure’s _Stories_, 89-91; Thayer, 284-85; Gallaher, 39-40.

[iv-13] Gibson W. Harris, in Browne, 220.

[iv-14] Koerner, ii, 112.

[iv-15] Caroline H. Dall, in _Atlantic Monthly_, April, 1867, p. 413.

[iv-16] Tarbell, i, 267-68; Curtis’s _Lincoln_, 74-75; Thomas Lewis, in _Leslie’s Weekly_, February 16, 1899.

[iv-17] Browne, 224.

[iv-18] G. W. Nance, in Oldroyd, 557.

[iv-19] Charles W. Moores, in _American Law Review_, January-February, 1911, p. 92.

[iv-20] Henry Rickel, in Cedar Rapids _Gazette_, February 6, 1909, p. 1.

[iv-21] Ward, 242-46; Jennings, 93-98.

[iv-22] Father Chiniquy reproduces in his book an engraved facsimile of the due-bill, dated May 23, 1856. It is undeniably in Lincoln’s handwriting, but no explanation has been offered to reconcile the date with the priest’s statement that the paper was written in October, at the time of the second trial. The author based his narrative of this affair upon Chiniquy, 566, 620-67; Whitney, 53-55, 136-37; and a brief of the Circuit Court records at Urbana, Illinois, made for the writer by Judge Joseph O. Cunningham.

[iv-23] George P. Floyd, in _McClure’s Magazine_, January, 1908, p. 303.

[iv-24] Lamon’s _Recollections_, 17-19; see, also, Browne’s _Lincoln and Men_, i, 348-51. There are a few other examples, in legal history, of high-minded lawyers rejecting what they regarded as excessive fees. One notable English instance is thus related by Lord Brougham concerning Topping:--

“A general retainer of a thousand guineas was brought to him to cover the Baltic cases then in progress. His answer was, that this indicated either a doubt of his doing his duty on the ordinary terms known in the profession (one guinea particular, and five guineas general retainer)--or an expectation that he should, on being thus retained, do something beyond the line of his duty; and therefore he must decline it. His clerk then accepted of the usual sum of five guineas, and he led on those important cases, for the defendants.”

So also Charles O’Conor, leader for many years of the New York bar, subordinated money-making to a sense of professional propriety. His friend, William H. Winters, Librarian of the Law Institute, relates that a client once urged the famous pleader, with some insistence, to accept a very much larger fee than the lawyer had charged. O’Conor, becoming indignant, manifested in his own forcible way how this annoyed him. He denied the right of any one to dictate what his pay for legal services should be, and dismissed the presumptuous client without ceremony.

[iv-25] There is a companion tale current among English lawyers concerning another member of the bar, at an earlier period, who was accused by his fellow barristers of having degraded their order by accepting payment for services in copper. Upon being arraigned for this offense at their Common Hall he defended himself,--so the tradition runs,--with the following plea in confession and avoidance: “I fully admit that I took a fee from him in copper, and not one but several, and not only fees in copper but fees in silver. But I pledge my honor, as a Sergeant, that I never took a single fee from him in silver until I had got all his gold, and that I never took a fee from him in copper until I had got all his silver,--and you don’t call that a degradation of our order.”

[iv-26] Whitney, 81.

[iv-27] Works, xi, 98-99.

[iv-28] E. S. Nadal, in _Scribner’s Magazine_, March, 1906, p. 368.

[iv-29] Herndon, i, 324-25.

[iv-30] That baffling question as to how the value of a lawyer’s services should be arrived at was thus stated in Lincoln’s trial brief: “Are or not the _amount_ of _labor_, the _doubtfulness_ and _difficulty_ of the _question_, the _degree_ of _success_ in the _result_, and the _amount_ of pecuniary interest _involved_, not merely in the particular case, but covered by the principle decided, and thereby _secured_ to the client, all proper elements, by the custom of the profession to consider in determining what is a reasonable fee in a given case?”

For an answer that may serve, in part, at least, the reader is referred to an opinion, which had been delivered some years previously by Chief Justice John B. Gibson, of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Discussing the fees earned by an attorney in important litigation, he said: “It is not to be doubted that responsibility, in a confidential employment, is a legitimate subject of compensation, and in proportion to the magnitude of the interests committed to the agents.... A lawyer charged with particular preparations for a lawsuit, is not to be made responsible, or paid, as a porter or a shoemaker.” (Pennsylvania Reports, vii, 545-46.)

[iv-31] Lincoln’s attitude in this particular affords another striking contrast to that of David Hoffman, who lays down the rule: “I will charge for my services what my judgment and conscience inform me is my due, and nothing more. If that be withheld, it will be no fit matter for arbitration; for no one but myself can adequately judge of such services, and after they are successfully rendered they are apt to be ungratefully forgotten. I will then receive what the client offers, or the laws of the country may award, but in either case he must never hope to be again my client.”

[iv-32] The most fruitful references on this topic are: Herndon, ii, 21-22; Whitney’s _Life_, i, 184-85; Hill, 250-54, 261, 316-19; Tarbell, i, 258-60; _Works_, ii, 288-89; _Lincoln as Attorney_, _passim_; Curtis’s _Lincoln_, 72; Illinois Reports, xvii, 291-99; Koerner, ii, 111-12.

[iv-33] Jesse W. Weik, in _Century Magazine_, June, 1904, pp. 282, 286; Herndon, i, 251.

[iv-34] Lincoln to Speed, July 4, 1842, in Lamon, 251; _Works_, i, 219.

[iv-35] Browne, 180-82; Coffin, 123; Gallaher, 31; Hapgood, 85; Jesse W. Weik, in _Century Magazine_, June, 1904, p. 280.

[iv-36] Four children, in all, were born to Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. They were: Robert Todd, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; William Wallace, December 21, 1850; and Thomas, April 4, 1853.

[iv-37] Some years after the purchase of this cottage, its modest dimensions were enlarged by the addition of another story to meet the requirements of an increased family.

[iv-38] Leonard W. Volk, quoted in the _Outlook_, February 13, 1909, p. 348.

[iv-39] Lincoln’s straightway habit of waiting on himself had striking illustration while he was in Congress. Calling for some law books at the library of the Supreme Court, as the librarian relates, he tied them in a huge bandana handkerchief which he took from his pocket, passed a stick, brought for the purpose, through the knotted ends, slung the bundle across his shoulder and carried it thus to his lodgings, whence the volumes were returned later in the same primitive fashion. When a still greater public honor than that of Congressman came to him, one of his neighbors in Springfield exclaimed: “What! Abe Lincoln nominated for President of the United States! Can it be possible? A man that buys a ten-cent beefsteak for his breakfast, and carries it home himself.”

[iv-40] Herndon, ii, 16.

[iv-41] Joseph Gillespie, in Oldroyd, 462. Still another one of the famous cavalcade, Leonard Swett, said: “Beds were always too short, coffee in the morning burned or otherwise bad, food often indifferent, roads simply trails, streams without bridges and often swollen, and had to be swum, sloughs often muddy and almost impassable, and we had to help the horses, when the wagon mired down, with fence-rails for pries, and yet I never heard Lincoln complain of anything.”

In the same vein, Henry C. Whitney wrote: “At the table, he ate what came first, without discrimination or choice. Whatever room at the hotel came handy, or whatever bed he came to first, he took without criticism or inspection.”

[iv-42] Quoted from manuscript of Ninian W. Edwards by Herndon, i, 186; also: Lamon, 190; French, 60; Coffin, 99; Browne, 138-39; Master, 55-56.

[iv-43] Whitney, 32; see, also, Herndon, ii, 15-16.

[iv-44] Schurz, ii, 90-91.

[iv-45] Chief Justice John Marshall, whom Lincoln resembled in not a few particulars, is said to have made a similarly unfavorable impression upon a prospective client, during his younger days at the Richmond bar. But in the Virginian’s case, the critical suitor discovered, even before the trial began, that a poorly dressed lawyer is not necessarily a poor advocate. So Marshall was retained, at the eleventh hour, to assist an immaculately attired colleague, whose ability was found to fall far short of the promise held forth by broadcloth and powdered wig.

[iv-46] Master, 224-25, 469.

[iv-47] _Works_, iv, 199.

[iv-48] Jayne, 11; and Dr. William Jayne to the author, October 2, 1912.

[iv-49] Gibson W. Harris, quoted in Columbia (Ky.) _Spectator_, January 27, 1905. The same witness, writing elsewhere (Browne, 219) on the same theme, says: “Mr. Lincoln had a heart that was more a woman’s than a man’s,--filled to overflowing with sympathy for those in trouble, and ever ready to relieve them by any means in his power.”

[iv-50] Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley, November 15, 1867, in Keckley, 352.

[iv-51] John F. Mendonsa to the author, August 31, 1912.

[iv-52] Haynie, 7-8.

[iv-53] Fellowship, 1908, pp. 12-13; see, also, _Works_, ii, 313-14.

[iv-54] Lincoln to Johnston, January 12, 1851, _Works_, ii, 148.

[iv-55] _Works_, ii, 96.

[iv-56] This deed may be found in Coles County Deed Records, G, p. 5. Of the same date, October 25, 1841, entered in Mortgage Record, i, p. 43, is an instrument whereby Abraham Lincoln binds himself and his heirs to convey the property to John D. Johnston or his heirs, after the death of the parents, upon repayment of the two hundred dollars, without interest and without regard to any increase in the value of the tract.

[iv-57] For further light on these matters the reader is referred to the letters from Lincoln to Johnston in _Works_, ii, 135, 144-46, 147-53; and to the deed published in Gridley, 145-46.

[iv-58] Lincoln’s ownership of this land, in the town named for him, is further evidence of his ready amiability toward friends, where monetary matters were concerned. The lot, situated on the south side of the court-house square, had belonged to James Primm, a well-known court official and public man of Logan County. Finding himself in financial difficulties, he had borrowed four hundred dollars on his promise to pay, which Lincoln obligingly endorsed. But when the time for payment arrived, the maker of the note was unable to meet it, so the endorser had found himself obliged to pay. Lincoln did so, and some time later Primm, by way of reimbursement, had given him a deed of the lot. (See Stringer, i, 221-22.)

[iv-59] E. J. Edwards, in New York _Times_, January 24, 1909. For other accounts see: Raymond, 100; Browne, 314-15; Curtis’s _Lincoln_, 45; Ward, 281; Thayer, 313-14; _Lincolnics_, 93-94. As having a further bearing on the question of Lincoln’s estate in 1860, these references may be serviceable: _Works_, vi, 31; Arnold, 83, 154-55; Whitney, 26; Herndon, i, 91-92; Oldroyd, 32; Lamon, 472; Lamon’s _Recollections_, 20; Holland, 127; Hobson, 100-04; Browne, 200-01; Rice, 587; Curtis’s _Lincoln_, 74; _McClure’s Magazine_, March, 1909, pp. 514-15; New York _Times_, October 1, 1911, p. 10.