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."

Herndon confirms this fact as to Euclid and further relates that his study of Euclid was chiefly done upon the circuit while Lincoln's fellow lawyers were comfortably asleep.

Touching this study, Lincoln once said:

"In the course of my reading I constantly came upon the word 'demonstrate'-I thought at first that I understood its meaning, but soon became satisfied that I did not. I consulted Webster's Dictionary. That told of certain proof, 'proof beyond the probability of doubt'; but I could form no sort of idea what sort of proof that was.

"I consulted all the dictionaries and books of reference I could find, but with no better results. You might as well have defined blue to a blind man. At last I said, 'Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if you do not understand what demonstrate means.' I studied Euclid until I could give any proposition in the first six books at sight. I then found out what demonstrate meant."

What a splendid lesson here, not only for the student and the lawyer, but also for every man that has to do with the study of any science where logic is a factor. To the jury it was a case of "demonstration," to the judge it was a case of "demonstration," to the public in a political argument it was likewise a case of "demonstration," and afterward when he became President of the United States his one great purpose was to "demonstrate" the wisdom and justice of his policythe Union.

But we are now concerned with him as a lawyer. You will remember in the preceding chapter his views on legal ethics. Bear in mind that Lincoln's words there quoted were not 'glittering generalities.' They

were not mere theories or abstractions. They were the root and branch taken from his practice. In short, he put his ideals into his cases.

Lincoln realized reverently that the lawyer was first "an officer of the court" in the administration of justice and as such the attorney or agent of the public to do justice, before he became an attorney or agent of some client to win his cause.

His great ability in the conduct of cases became so familiar to the people of Illinois that no doubt he was often sought for by prospective clients to take causes that were unconscionable. At all events, before Lincoln would accept a retainer every cause had to be first tried out in the 'court of conscience.' This was God's court; it was Lincoln's court, and a favorable judgment had to be given here first before he proceeded into man's court with any cause either for plaintiff or defendant.

No case better illustrates this conscientious conviction of Lincoln than the following incident. A client in Lincoln's office was talking very earnestly and in low tone to Lincoln about a case in which he desired to employ him. One person in the office overheard the conversation and related Mr. Lincoln's reply, as follows, in a letter addressed to Mr. Herndon:

"Yes," he said, "we can doubtless gain your case for you; we can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and her children as it does to you. You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will

give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man; we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way.'

Many instances of this character might be cited. Indeed, after he got into the midst of a case, if he found out that his client had misrepresented things to him, had lied to him about the facts of the case, and it turned out during the progress of the trial that the judgment ought to be against his client, he not unfrequently would say so directly to the court. In one noted instance he abandoned the case.

Curtis in his biography quotes Leonard Swett, the great lawyer of Chicago, and the great personal and political friend of Lincoln, as follows:

"Once he (Lincoln) was prosecuting a civil suit, in the course of which evidence was introduced showing that his client was attempting a fraud. Lincoln rose and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge sent for him; he refused to come. 'Tell the judge,' he said, 'my hands are dirty; I came over to wash them."" Lincoln quit the case. His conduct will be a shock to some modern lawyers. But this was Lincoln's characteristic way of dealing with frauds and shams. Frequently in the trial of a cause, if he had good reason to believe that his client was wrong, or if it was a criminal case that his client was guilty, he seemed to lose heart because he had lost the approval of his conscience, and left his associate to conduct the cause.

In one noted instance, where there was a large amount involved, he turned to his associate counsel and said:

"Our client is wrong. I can't proceed further with the case. You will have to conduct it alone."