ABRAHAM 
 LINCOLN 
 
 By Some Men Who Knew Him 
 
 BEING PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 JUDGE OWEN T. REEVES 
 HON. JAMES S. EWING 
 COL. RICHARD R MORGAN 
 JUDGE FRANKLIN BLADES 
 JOHN W. BUNN 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HON. ISAAC N. PHILLIPS 
 
 i 
 
 PUBLISHBD BY 
 
 PANTAGRAPH PRINTING & STATIONERY CO. 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS 
 
E45 1 / 
 .\b 
 Aft 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 
 
 PANTAGRAPH PRINTING & STATIONERY Co. 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILL. 
 
To those who have read volumes of Lincoln 
 biographies in a vain effort to form a correct 
 estimate of Lincoln, the man, this book is re 
 spectfully dedicated. 
 
 238186 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In the publication of this unique little vol 
 ume, we are justified by the fact that so much 
 unreliable information has been published con 
 cerning Lincoln. We feel a laudable ambition 
 to. set right, so far as possible, erroneous im 
 pressions. 
 
 We have neither added to nor taken from, 
 these personal recollections of honorable gen 
 tlemen who lived the life as Lincoln lived it, 
 and who are, therefore, capable of arriving at 
 a fairly accurate estimate of his true character. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I am asked to write an introduction to this 
 little book. I confess I feel a very considerable 
 interest in the subject of it and am very glad to 
 see it go forth to the world. The book represents 
 a praiseworthy effort on the part of its publishers 
 The Pantagraph Printing & Stationery Company, 
 of Bloomington, Illinois to preserve in a perma 
 nent form some original evidence upon the question, 
 "What kind of a man was Lincoln?" 
 
 I know very many people have of late been 
 telling the world what kind of a man Lincoln was, 
 and have been relating many incidents, facts and 
 recollections concerning him. On the centenary 
 of Lincoln s birth, the newspapers of the country 
 were flooded with interviews and communications 
 from all sorts of people. There are, in fact, very 
 few men now living who knew Abraham Lincoln 
 at all well, or who saw much of him, and who have 
 at the same time definite personal recollections 
 concerning him. The recollections here given are 
 given by persons who, I know, really did know 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Lincoln. They are likewise persons who would 
 not pretend to know things they do not know. 
 
 There were never more than a very few men who 
 could at any time pretend to have been on terms 
 at all intimate with Lincoln, because Lincoln took 
 but few, if any, into his deeper confidences. The 
 men whose recollections are given in this book do 
 not pretend that they were on deeply confidential 
 terms with Lincoln. Nobody living can now 
 pretend to that, and the man who does pretend to 
 it may be generally set down as mistaken. The 
 men who speak here have some memories and 
 recollections concerning Lincoln and they give 
 us these memories for what they are worth. 
 
 It is useless to assure readers that the writer 
 of this introduction would never have been active 
 in helping to cause these recollections to be pub 
 lished, if he had not believed that they set forth 
 the real truth, so far as they go, concerning Lincoln. 
 These men were all quite close friends of my own. 
 I know each of them to be a man who would not 
 pervert the truth in order to make a mouthable 
 or amusing story, and I further know that the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 memory of each of these gentlemen was, when he 
 wrote, very distinct and clear. 
 
 I am exceedingly gratified to get this testimony 
 on record, where the future historian may find it, 
 for we may be sure the real life of Lincoln has not 
 yet been written, and, unless the confusion sur 
 rounding the subject shall clear up more rapidly 
 than it bids fair to do, the real life of Lincoln will 
 not be written for at least another fifty years. It 
 will quite surely not be written before the gen 
 eration of men who knew Lincoln in life are all 
 dead and gone. It was so with Washington, and 
 it is going to be so with Lincoln. Washington was 
 so far perverted by would-be story tellers and 
 biographers, that only the man who now studies 
 Washington very carefully really knows what man 
 ner of man he was, and, sad to say, the men who 
 study his life with care are now very few. In the 
 early period, he was much belittled by busy-bodies 
 who pretended to know all about him. 
 
 When preparations were in progress in Blooming - 
 ton for the celebration of the centenary of Lincoln s 
 birthday, being on a committee of the Grand Army 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Post of Bloomington which had in charge the 
 selection of speakers, I insisted that men should 
 be selected to speak who had a personal knowledge 
 of Lincoln. We already had plenty of eulogies; 
 what we needed was facts. I knew that the men 
 who really had valuable information were apt to 
 be modest men, who would not rush forward to be 
 interviewed or to make speeches. Two notable 
 speeches that were made at that celebration on the 
 afternoon of the 12th of February, 1909, namely, 
 that of Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson and that of Judge 
 Reuben M. Benjamin, both of Bloomington, have 
 already been published in MacChesney s book, 
 "The Tribute of A Century," and there appear 
 under copyright. Another speech from the same 
 platform and on the same occasion was made by 
 Judge Owen T. Reeves, likewise of Bloomington 
 and is included in this book. Another address 
 setting forth some recollections of Lincoln was 
 made on the evening of that day at Bloomington 
 by Hon. James S. Ewing, before the Illinois School 
 masters Club, and that speech likewise is given 
 in this book. At Pontiac, Illinois, where a like 
 
 10 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 celebration was held on the same day, Colonel 
 Richard Price Morgan, of Dwight, 111., delivered 
 an address, giving some recollections of Lincoln, 
 and Col. Morgan s address is also printed here* 
 At my special solicitation Judge Franklin Blades, 
 of Pomona, California, wrote out his recollections 
 of Lincoln, which will be found very interesting 
 and are included here. 
 
 I venture to call special attention to the set of 
 resolutions, written by Lincoln, and passed by the 
 Illinois legislature in January, 1861, as related by 
 Judge Blades. These have hitherto escaped atten 
 tion. Judge Blades, I am proud to say, has long 
 been my personal friend. His testimony on the 
 question of the authorship of these resolutions is 
 absolutely conclusive. I know him to be as 
 conscientious a man as ever lived, exceedingly 
 careful not to state more than he knows. 
 
 John W. Bunn, of Springfield, Illinois, is well 
 known to be about the last survivor in Springfield 
 who knew Lincoln well before the war, and, at my 
 special solicitation, he has written out some of his 
 recollections of Lincoln, and it is a great pleasure 
 
 11 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 to me to present them in this book. I regard Mr. 
 Bunn as really the best authority upon Lincoln 
 in the period before the Civil War. 
 
 Much has been said about Lincoln s supposed 
 propensity to spin yarns and tell doubtful anec 
 dotes. That Lincoln was a sort of fabulist and 
 illustrated his points by incidents and remembered 
 happenings, is true, but biographers, and particu 
 larly would-be "old familiar friends" have so greatly 
 over-stated Lincoln s story telling propensity that 
 it is well that men who really knew him well 
 and can be relied upon to state facts, should be 
 heard on the subject. 
 
 Another class of writers have seemed exceedingly 
 anxious to make it appear that Lincoln came 
 literally from nothing. The Bible tells us that 
 men do not gather figs from thistles, but some of 
 the biographers would have us believe that this 
 saying of the Holy Writ does not apply to Lincoln. 
 Many of them make a special point of belittling 
 and discrediting his parents and ancestors in order 
 to produce a striking contrast for the purpose of 
 eulogy. Such persons are, in nearly every in- 
 
 12 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 stance, animated more by a desire to attract atten 
 tion to themselves than by a desire to really depict 
 the great man who lived, worked and aspired, out 
 here in Illinois, and who at last attained to the hard 
 but glorious privilege of martyrdom for his cause. 
 
 Isaac N. Phillips. 
 
Personal Recollections 
 and Estimates of Lincoln 
 
 OWEN T. REEVES 
 
 IS 
 
JUDGE OWEN T. REEVES 
 
 Judge Owen T. ReeVes was born December 18, 
 1829, in Ross County, Ohio. He was graduated 
 from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1850, and 
 three years later received from that University 
 the degree of Master of Arts. In 1 888 he received 
 the degree of L.L.D. from Monmouth College, in 
 Illinois. From 1850 to 1854 he was engaged in 
 teaching. He came to Bloomington, Illinois, in 
 October, 1 854, which place has since been his home. 
 Judge Reeves was admitted to the bar before leaving 
 Ohio and commenced the practice of the law when 
 he settled at Bloomington. In 1861 he was ap 
 pointed city clerk and city attorney of Blooming- 
 ton. He was elected a circuit judge March 1, 
 1877, and remained on the bench until June, 1891. 
 The last three years of his judicial service he was, 
 by assignment of the Illinois Supreme Court, a 
 judge of the Illinois Appellate Court for the Fourth 
 District. Since 1891 he has been Dean of the 
 Bloomington Law School. In the Civil War he 
 was Colonel of the 70th Illinois Infantry. Judge 
 Reeves was one of the most impartial and most 
 clear-headed judges that ever held a nisi prius 
 court, as the lawyers who practiced before him 
 
 will universally testify. 
 
 16 
 
JUDGE OWEN T. REEVES 
 
Personal Recollections 
 and Estimates of Lincoln 
 
 OWEN T. REEVES 
 
 I recall with marked distinctness my im 
 pressions on my first meeting Mr. Lincoln 
 in March, 1855. I had heard much of him 
 before I met him. His candidacy for the 
 United States Senate before the General 
 Assembly in January, 1855, had focused 
 my attention upon him. The unusual com 
 plimentary comments by those who had 
 known him many years some of whom 
 were directly opposed to him politically 
 riveted my attention to this unusual man. 
 No wonder, then, that when I met him I 
 was specially attracted to a careful analysis 
 of how he impressed me, and that this analy 
 sis is still distinct in memory. 
 
 17 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Speaking generally, I may say that I now 
 recall clearly that I was deeply impressed 
 with the fact that I had met a man widely 
 different from the ordinary man of distinc 
 tion. There was something, just what not 
 clearly defined, in him, that stamped him in 
 my conception as a man of marked superior 
 ity intellectually. 
 
 Lincoln s personality was to me a revela 
 tion, different from any other personality I 
 had ever tried to measure and comprehend, 
 although it had been my good fortune in 
 prior years to have had personal relations 
 with a goodly number of men of wide and 
 well-merited distinction. He had an individ 
 uality that was singularly impressive. Alto 
 gether, the problem of his true measure as a 
 man was complex and not easy of solution. 
 To me Mr. Lincoln was a continuous study, 
 and the farther the study was carried, the 
 
 18 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 higher the estimate of him arose until, to me, 
 he stood out as a veritable marvel among 
 men. 
 
 From March, 1 855, to the Spring of 
 1 860, I met Mr. Lincoln often and became 
 quite intimately acquainted with him. He 
 attended all of the sessions of the McLean 
 County Circuit Court during that period. I 
 heard him try many cases some of large 
 importance, and many ordinary cases. I 
 recall his assisting the State s Attorney in 
 the prosecution of one Wyatt for murder, a 
 hard-fought case in which Leonard Swett 
 succeeded in acquitting Wyatt of murder, 
 on the ground of insanity. He appeared 
 for plaintiff, Meshach Pike, in a suit to set 
 aside the sale of the Pike Hotel at Bloom- 
 ington, on the ground of fraud on the part 
 of the purchaser. Judge T. L. Dickey, of 
 Ottawa, and local attorneys appeared for 
 
 19 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 the defense, and Lincoln won out. He de 
 fended a chancery suit in which I appeared 
 for complainant, by which it was sought to 
 set aside a sale of school lands, which re 
 sulted in favor of the defendant. He rep 
 resented the Illinois Central Railroad Com 
 pany in its suit, contesting the validity of an 
 assessment by the county of McLean of 
 county taxes against the railroad company, 
 in which he was successful in defeating the 
 tax. This suit settled the non-liability of the 
 Illinois Central Railroad Company for local 
 taxes for the full period of its charter. 
 
 Lincoln was engaged during this period 
 in the trial of a great variety of cases, his 
 employment being sufficient to maintain his 
 presence in court practically during the en 
 tire sessions of the court. 
 
 It is not my purpose, in the brief time al 
 lotted me, to speak further of Lincoln as a 
 
 20 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 lawyer. Referring to Lincoln s personal 
 characteristics, I will say that to portray Lin 
 coln as ill-mannered, uncouth, unrefined in 
 sentiment, the indulger of vulgarity of speech, 
 a buffoon and yarn-spinner, is a complete 
 and outrageous caricature, as I knew him. 
 His mind, in all its serious moods, which 
 was its prevailing condition, was occupied 
 by lofty thoughts upon subjects of the high 
 est concern, developing a philosophy of life 
 in all its myriad phases, based upon sound 
 reason and exalted conceptions. 
 
 I heard Lincoln tell hundreds of anec 
 dotes and stories, but never one that was not 
 told to illustrate or give point to some sub 
 ject or question that had been the theme of 
 conversation, or that was not suggested by 
 an anecdote or story told by someone else. 
 This fact found an apt illustration, when 
 Lincoln was asked what he thought of 
 
 21 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Hood s army after its sweeping defeat at 
 the battle of Nashville, Term., by General 
 Thomas. Lincoln said the question remind 
 ed him of the story of an Illinois farmer 
 who had been sorely annoyed by a maraud 
 ing dog. The farmer procured a piece of 
 meat into which there was put a powerful 
 explosive, and placed the meat in the path 
 that the dog would take to reach the place 
 where his usual depredations were commit 
 ted. He tied a string, saturated with gaso 
 line, to the piece of meat and took a position 
 behind a tree from which he could see the 
 dog as he approached. He fired the string 
 in time to reach the meat at the same time 
 as the dog. The result was the dog gulped 
 the meat and instantly there was an explo 
 sion. When the farmer was asked what was 
 the effect on the dog, he replied, "That dog, 
 as a dog, will not ever again amount to 
 
 22 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 much." So Lincoln s answer to the question 
 asked him was, "I don t think Hood s army, 
 as an arm];, will hereafter amount to much." 
 A short time ago, I came across a state 
 ment said to have been made by Lincoln, 
 during the war, when challenged to tell a 
 story. He said: "I believe I have the popu 
 lar reputation of being a story-teller, but I 
 do not deserve the name in any general 
 sense; for it is not the story itself, but its 
 purpose or effect, that interests me. I often 
 avoid a long and useless discussion by others, 
 or a laborious explanation on my own part, 
 by a short story that illustrates my point of 
 view. So, too, the sharpness of a refusal or 
 the edge of a rebuke may be blunted by an 
 appropriate story so as to save wounded feel 
 ing and yet serve the purpose. No, I am 
 not simply a story-teller, but story-telling as 
 an emollient saves me much friction and dis- 
 
 M 
 
 tress. 
 
 23 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Lincoln was the apostle of the common 
 people. Their rights, their conditions, their 
 hardships, their opportunities, their aspira 
 tions, their hopes, their joys, their sorrows 
 all these were subjects upon which his mind 
 brooded and sought to work out plans for 
 their betterment and happiness. No man I 
 ever met knew the common people better 
 than he, or was in closer sympathy with 
 them. Having sprung from the innumerable 
 common throng, his heart never ceased to 
 beat in sympathy with them. Besides, he 
 was endowed with that best sense common 
 sense. This, with his broad, clear grasp of 
 every subject that touched the interests of the 
 masses, made him pre-eminently the advo 
 cate of the rights of the common people. 
 
 Up to the time of the repeal of the Mis 
 souri Compromise in 1 854, Lincoln had not 
 become recognized as a great leader in mat- 
 
 24 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 ters of state. He had been active as a 
 Whig on the stump, and had served one 
 term in Congress, besides a number of terms 
 in the legislature, but, practically, after the 
 close of his term in Congress, he returned to 
 the practice of law, and devoted himself 
 almost exclusively to his profession. The 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise made 
 quite an upheaval in political parties and 
 started a new movement. 
 
 Lincoln at an early date became settled 
 in the conviction that human slavery was 
 both in the abstract and concrete, morally 
 wrong. While this conviction grew with 
 the years, he recognized that slavery, as it 
 existed in the Southern States, was pro 
 tected by the Constitution, and any interfer 
 ence with slavery as it existed in the South 
 was unwarranted and could not be supported 
 simply by a belief that it rvas wrong. Hence, 
 
 25 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 he refused to co-operate with what was 
 known as the Abolition party, and had no 
 sympathy with its doctrines. However, 
 while this was true, he was always unalter 
 ably opposed to the extension of slavery into 
 the territories. He had clearly worked out, 
 in his consideration of the subject of slavery 
 as it existed in the Southern States, that, so 
 far as its continued existence there was in 
 volved, there was no power outside of those 
 States to interfere with it, but while this was 
 true and to be conscientiously observed, 
 there was no reason why opposition might 
 not be made to its extension into the terri 
 tories of the United States. 
 
 Lincoln went a step farther in his speech 
 at Springfield in June, 1858, in which he 
 declared: "A house divided against itself 
 cannot stand. I believe that this Govern 
 ment cannot endure permanently half-slave 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 and half-free. I do not expect the Union 
 to be dissolved I do not expect the house 
 to fall but I do expect it will cease to be 
 divided. It will become all one thing or all 
 the other. Either the opponents of slavery 
 will arrest the further spread of it and place 
 it where the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate ex 
 tinction, or its advocates will push it for 
 ward till it shall become alike lawful in all 
 the States, old as well as new, North as well 
 as South. * 
 
 This prediction of his was predicated 
 upon his belief that the conviction of the 
 great wrong of slavery would in time work 
 out, in some way, its extinction; either that 
 or the opinions of men would change as to 
 the moral character of slavery, so that it 
 would come into use the country over 
 plainly his belief was that the sentiment 
 
 27 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 against slavery would not cease, but con 
 tinue to grow, and, eventually, would work 
 out the ultimate extinction of slavery. 
 
 Most naturally, with his deep-seated con 
 viction on the subject of slavery, Lincoln at 
 once became absorbed in the questions 
 which sprung out of the repeal of the Mis 
 souri Compromise, and he at once became a 
 leader of the forces that opposed this repeal. 
 October third, 1 854, Douglas, at the State 
 Fair in Springfield, made his great speech 
 in defense of the Kansas and Nebraska bill 
 which repealed the Missouri Compromise, 
 and by which Judge Douglas introduced his 
 doctrine of popular sovereignty, under which 
 the people in the territories were left to de 
 cide whether they would have slavery or 
 not. October fourth, 1854, Lincoln, at the 
 same fair, replied to Judge Douglas, con 
 tending that by the Missouri Compromise, 
 
 28 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 which covered the territory of Kansas and 
 Nebraska, they had been solemnly dedi 
 cated to freedom, and slavery prohibited 
 therein. 
 
 On October third, 1 854, what was called 
 an Anti-Nebraska Convention was held at 
 Springfield, at which twenty-six delegates 
 were present, mostly well known Abolition 
 ists. Lincoln declined to attend this con 
 vention, as he was not in sympathy with the 
 doctrines of the Abolitionists. Moses, in his 
 history of Illinois, says that Lincoln met 
 Douglas in joint debate in October, 1854, 
 but does not state where, and that he fol 
 lowed Douglas at Peoria and other places. 
 
 Lincoln was elected to the Legislature 
 from Sangamon County in the fall of 1854. 
 When the returns of the election were made, 
 and it was shown that the opponents of the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise were in 
 
 29 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 the ascendancy in the General Assembly, 
 as Lincoln was recognized as the leader in 
 the Anti-Nebraska movement and the prob 
 able candidate for United States Senator to 
 succeed Judge Breese, he declined to accept 
 his credentials as a member of the Legis 
 lature, and a special election was held to 
 fill the vacancy. 
 
 When the General Assembly proceeded 
 to the election of a United States senator, 
 it was found that five of the Anti-Nebraska 
 forces were old-time Democrats, and they 
 refused to vote for Lincoln, who had always 
 been a Whig. The result was that, in order 
 to elect a senator who was opposed to the 
 Kansas-Nebraska bill, Lincoln s friends, at 
 his special instance, voted for Trumbull, 
 who had always been a Democrat. The 
 election of Trumbull to the Senate still left 
 Lincoln the leader of the party in Illinois. 
 
 30 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 His correspondence with Judge Trum- 
 bull, lately published in a leading magazine, 
 demonstrates that Lincoln kept his finger on 
 the pulse of public sentiment and suggested 
 the course to be pursued by the party in Illi 
 nois. In May, 1856, the first Illinois Re 
 publican State Convention was held in 
 Bloomington. Lincoln was the central fig 
 ure in that convention and made, what all 
 who heard it pronounced, the greatest speech 
 of his life. Most unfortunately, the speech 
 was not reported and is now known as the 
 "Lost Speech." I heard the speech and 
 have read what purports to be the speech, 
 as reproduced by Mr. Whitney, and must 
 say that the reproduction does not strike me 
 as being in any sense the speech which Lin 
 coln made and which I heard. 
 
 I must hasten to speak briefly of the cam 
 paign of 1858. The Republican State 
 
 31 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Convention was held at Springfield, June 
 16, 1858, which nominated Lincoln for 
 United States senator. It was at this con 
 vention that he made the speech containing 
 the words above quoted : "A house divided 
 against itself cannot stand," etc. 
 
 Moses, in history, says that when this 
 speech was prepared it was submitted by 
 Lincoln to his friends, and they all opposed 
 that part of the speech. Lincoln said to 
 them: "The time has come when these 
 sentiments should be uttered, and if it is 
 decreed that I should go down because of 
 this speech, then let me go down linked to 
 the truth let me die in the advocacy of 
 what is just and right." 
 
 In July, 1858, Douglas made his first 
 speech in the campaign of 1 858, at Chicago, 
 from the balcony of the Tremont House, 
 in which he vigorously attacked Lincoln s 
 
 32 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 speech before the Republican Convention 
 at Springfield in June. The next night Lin 
 coln replied to Judge Douglas from the 
 same place. July 1 6, 1 858, Judge Douglas 
 left Chicago for Springfield, and is reported 
 to have spoken at Bloomington en route; 
 and on July 1 7, 1 858, he delivered a set 
 speech at Springfield, to which Lincoln re 
 plied the next day. July 24, Lincoln chal 
 lenged Douglas to joint debate, which a 
 week later was accepted by Douglas and 
 arrangements for the joint debates con 
 cluded. 
 
 The first debate occurred at Ottawa, 
 August 21, 1858. At this time, Judge 
 Douglas propounded seven questions to be 
 answered by Lincoln at the next debate, 
 to be held at Freeport. Before the Free- 
 port meeting, Lincoln held a conference in 
 Bloomington with his friends, at which he 
 
 33 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 submitted his answers to Judge Douglas* 
 questions. As to these there was no contro 
 versy. Then Lincoln announced to his 
 friends that he proposed, at the Freeport 
 meeting, to submit to Judge Douglas four 
 questions, the principal one as follows : "Can 
 the people in any territory, by any lawful 
 means, against the wishes of any citizen of 
 the United States, exclude Slavery from the 
 territory, prior to its admission as a State?" 
 Lincoln s friends, except Jesse W. Fell, in 
 sisted that Judge Douglas would answer the 
 question in a way that would certainly 
 result in his election to the Senate and defeat 
 Lincoln, to which Lincoln only replied that 
 if he did so answer, he could never be presi 
 dent, and he, Lincoln, regarded the battle 
 of 1 860 for the presidency as infinitely more 
 important than the senatorship. 
 
 It should be remembered that before this 
 
 34 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 time the Dred Scott decision had been ren 
 dered by the United States Supreme Court, 
 which held that slave-holders had the right 
 to take with them into any territory of the 
 United States, their slaves, and hold them 
 there so long as the territory remained a 
 territory. Judge Douglas did reply as Lin 
 coln s friends anticipated, that the Legis 
 lature of a Territory, by unfriendly legis 
 lation, might practically exclude slavery 
 that this was but carrying out his doctrine of 
 popular sovereignty. Of course, this was 
 in direct conflict with the Dred Scott deci 
 sion, and this answer of Judge Douglas was 
 spread broadcast over the South. The re 
 sult was the secession of the South from the 
 Democratic National Convention of 1860, 
 and, in the end, the defeat of Judge Douglas 
 for the presidency. 
 
 Judge Douglas, in the House of Repre- 
 
 35 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 sentatives, and in the United States Senate, 
 had established a national reputation as a 
 debater. No man was better furnished with 
 the weapons of debate, or exhibited more 
 skill in their use, than he. On the other 
 hand, Mr. Lincoln had only a State repu 
 tation, extending, perhaps, to some of the 
 adjoining States, but no national reputation 
 as a debater. In Illinois, Lincoln had the 
 reputation of a logical debater. He had 
 already measured swords with Judge Doug 
 las, and each had received a taste of the 
 other s metal. Doubtless, Judge Douglas* 
 nation-wide reputation attracted marked 
 attention to the debate the country over, and 
 thereby Mr. Lincoln was brought into a na 
 tional notoriety and prominence which later, 
 in 1860, resulted in his nomination by the 
 Republican party as its candidate for the 
 presidency. 
 
 36 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 No sketch of Mr. Lincoln can be in any 
 sense adequate which does not deal with his 
 astonishing power over words. It is not too 
 much to say of him, that he is among the 
 greatest masters of prose ever produced by 
 the English race. On this subject of Lin 
 coln s power of expression, I will quote from 
 a writer of the highest standing, a portrayal 
 of the characteristics which gave to Lincoln 
 his classic style of expression, that will, for 
 all time, be the envy of those who strive for 
 excellence in speech. 
 
 "The most striking characteristic of Lin 
 coln s style may be found in the record from 
 the beginning. Candor was a trait of the 
 man and not less of his verbal manner. His 
 natural honesty of character, his desire to 
 make his meaning clear, literally to demon 
 strate what he believed to be the truth with 
 mathematical precision this gave to his ex 
 pression both attractiveness and force. The 
 simplicity of his nature, his lack of self- 
 
V 
 
 LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 consciousness and vanity, tended to simplic 
 ity and directness of diction. 
 
 An eminent lawyer has said perhaps 
 with exaggeration that, without the mas 
 sive reasoning of Webster or the resplendent 
 rhetoric of Burke, Lincoln exceeded them 
 both in his faculty of statement. His style 
 was affected, too, by the personal traits of 
 consideration of those of a contrary mind, 
 his toleration and large human sympathy. 
 But Lincoln s style might have had all these 
 qualities and yet not have carried as it did. 
 Beyond these traits comes the miracle the 
 cadence of his prose and its traits of pathos 
 and of imagination. Lincoln s prose, at its 
 height and when his spirit was stirred by 
 aspiration and resolve, affects the soul like 
 noble music. That is the strain in the two 
 inaugurals, in the Gettysburg address, and 
 in his letter of consolation to a bereaved 
 mother, which moves the hearts of genera 
 tion after generation. 
 
 "Lincoln s power of expression was evi 
 dently one of the most effective elements of 
 his leadership. The sympathy and tolera 
 tion which made his writings and speeches so 
 persuasive, assisted his leadership not only 
 
 38 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 in convincing his listeners and in endearing 
 him, the leader, to individuals and the 
 masses, but helped him as a statesman to 
 take large and humane views and to adopt 
 measures in keeping with these views. To 
 that sympathy and that toleration a reunited 
 country is under constant obligation, not 
 merely for the result of a successfully con 
 ducted war successful in the true interests 
 of both antagonists but for the continuing 
 possibility of good feeling between the sec 
 tions. To think that in the preparatory po 
 litical struggle and during the four years of 
 the hideous conflict, Abraham Lincoln, 
 though his spirit was strained almost beyond 
 human endurance by the hallssments of his 
 position, though misunderstood and foully 
 calumniated by public antagonists, and 
 thwarted and plotted against by some of 
 his own supporters, uttered not one word of 
 violence or rancor not a phrase which, after 
 the cessation of hostilities, might return to 
 embitter the defeated combatants or be re 
 sented by their descendants!" 
 
 I will close this brief sketch with the 
 closing sentence of the estimate of Mr. 
 
 39 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Lincoln by Mr. Herndon, his long-time law 
 partner: "Take him all in all, he was one 
 of the best, wisest, greatest and noblest of 
 men in all the ages." 
 
 40 
 
Speech of 
 Hon. James S. Ewing 
 
HON. JAMES S. EWING 
 
 James S. Ewing was born in 1835, in territory 
 then a part of McLean County, but now included 
 in Woodford County, Illinois. In 1840 his father, 
 long a leading business man, removed to Bloom- 
 ington and was at one time mayor of that city. Mr. 
 Ewing prepared for college at a school called 
 Jubilee College, situated in Peoria County. Later 
 he graduated from Center College at Danville, 
 Kentucky. He read law at Bloomington and was 
 admitted to practice in January, 1859, after which 
 he spent a year in the office of Hon. John C. Bullitt, 
 a leading attorney of Philadelphia, and, while in 
 the latter city, he attended a course of law lectures. 
 Since that time Mr. Ewing has practiced law at 
 Bloomington, Illinois, with the exception of four 
 years, during which time 1893-1897 he was 
 United States Minister to Belgium. He has al 
 ways been a democrat, and always active in State 
 and National politics, but was never a candidate 
 for any political office. Mr. Ewing is still living 
 at Bloomington, Illinois. 
 
__ 
 
 HON. JAMES S. EWING 
 
Speech of 
 Hon. James S. Ewing 
 
 At the Banquet oi the Illinois Schoolmasters* 
 Club, Bloomington, Feb. 12, 19O9 
 
 Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: 
 
 During the years 1844 and 1845, my 
 father, Mr. John W. Ewing, was the pro 
 prietor of the old National Hotel, on Front 
 street, in the city of Bloomington. At that 
 time circuit courts were held in McLean 
 county, twice a year, and there were a num 
 ber of lawyers from other counties who 
 usually attended these terms. Amongst 
 those whom I specially remember as com 
 ing from Springfield, and who were guests 
 at my father s house, were Hon. James 
 McDougal, afterward a Senator from Cali 
 fornia; Mr. John T. Stuart, and Abraham 
 Lincoln. I thus became acquainted with 
 
 45 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, and I continued to know him, 
 as a boy knows a distinguished man whom 
 he often meets, until 1860, when he was 
 elected President of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was fond of children. At 
 least he knew many of the boys and girls 
 of the village, the children of his older 
 friends, and often talked to them and ex 
 pressed an interest in their welfare. They 
 liked Mr. Lincoln, and most of the boys in 
 the town knew him and many of them talked 
 to him, as we all thought, on most intimate 
 terms. 
 
 In 1844, Mr. Lincoln was thirty-five 
 years of age, in the very prime of his 
 younger manhood, and during the follow 
 ing fifteen years (except one term of service 
 in Congress) he "traveled the circuit," de 
 voting most of his time to the practice of the 
 law. When I first knew anything of courts, 
 
 46 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 Hon. Samuel H. Treat was the presiding 
 judge of this circuit. He was afterward 
 appointed to the Federal bench, and the 
 Hon. David Davis became his successor and 
 continued as the circuit judge until appointed 
 by Mr. Lincoln as an associate justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. It 
 was then the habit for such lawyers as pos 
 sessed sufficient experience and ability to at 
 tract a clientage to follow the court around 
 the circuit. Mr. Lincoln was of this num 
 ber and more than perhaps any other was 
 most constant and unremitting in his attend 
 ance. 
 
 During these fifteen years, with the eager 
 curiosity of a boy, I was a frequent attendant 
 in the court room, and heard Mr. Lincoln 
 try a great many law suits. The suits them 
 selves often dealt with trivial matters, but 
 great men were engaged in them. Mr. Lin- 
 
 47 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 coin was engaged in most of the suits of 
 any importance. He was wonderfully suc 
 cessful. He was a master in all that went 
 to make up what was called a "jury law 
 yer. * His wonderful power of clear and 
 logical statement seemed the beginning and 
 the end of the case. After his statement of 
 the law and the facts in any particular case, 
 we wondered either how the plaintiff came 
 to bring such a suit or how the defendant 
 could be such a fool as to defend it. By 
 the time the jury was selected, each mem 
 ber of it felt that the great lawyer was his 
 friend and v/as relying upon him as a juror 
 to see that no injustice was done. Mr. Lin 
 coln s ready, homely, but always pertinent, 
 illustrations and anecdotes could not be re 
 sisted. Few men ever lived who knew, as 
 he did, the mainsprings of action, secret mo 
 tive, the passions, prejudices and inclina- 
 
 48 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 tions which inspired the actions of men, and 
 he played on the human heart as a master 
 on an instrument. 
 
 This power over a jury was, however, the 
 least of his claims to be entitled a good law 
 yer. He was masterful in a legal argument 
 before the court. His knowledge of the 
 general principles of the law was extensive 
 and accurate, and his mind was so clear and 
 logical that he seldom made a mistake in 
 their application. Courteous to the court, 
 fair to his opponent, and modest and re 
 strained in his assertions, he was certainly 
 the model lawyer. 
 
 As for myself, I decided I would be a 
 lawyer, and that I would be just such a law 
 yer as Mr. Lincoln was. Well, as a matter 
 of fact, I didn t become just such a lawyer. 
 My failure in that regard, to my friends, 
 was a regret rather than a surprise. I was 
 
 49 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 like a rather frothy young friend of mine, 
 who had been to hear Bishop Spaulding 
 preach, and, inspired by the eloquence of 
 the great preacher, imparted to me in con 
 fidence that "if he had his life to live over, 
 he would be a bishop." 
 
 While my great ambition fell so far short 
 of realization, yet of one thing I am sure 
 success was very much nearer by reason of 
 the high ideals I imbibed from Lincoln. I 
 believe that every young lawyer then at the 
 Bloomington bar became a better lawyer 
 on account of Mr. Lincoln s example. 
 
 I heard Mr. Lincoln make a number of 
 political speeches. I heard his speech in the 
 old court house in 1 854, on the Kansas and 
 Nebraska bill, in answer to the speech of 
 Mr. Douglas on the same subject, made a 
 few days before. In this speech, what im 
 pressed me most was that same wonderful 
 
 50 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 power of statement to which I have before 
 referred. I can never forget the manner in 
 which he stated the causes and events which 
 led up to the enactment of the Missouri Com 
 promise; just what that compromise was, 
 and how it affected the question of slavery; 
 the history of the events and causes which 
 led to the passage of the compromise of 
 1 850 ; its constitutional elements ; just what 
 the South got and just what the North got 
 by it, and how it was affected by the repeal 
 of the other compromise bill. It seems to 
 me I could almost repeat those statements 
 to-day, after a half century, so vivid was the 
 impression. 
 
 I heard his speech in the Major Hall 
 Convention in May, 1856, spoken of some 
 times as the "Lost Speech." But this 
 speech did not impress me as the one of 
 two years before possibly because it was 
 
 51 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 only one of several great speeches by other 
 great orators Owen Lovejoy, O. H. 
 Browning, John M. Palmer, Archibald 
 Williams, T. Lyle Dickey, Norton, Grid- 
 ley, Farnsworth and others, who all took an 
 active part in that historic convention. 
 
 In 1854, Judge Stephen A. Douglas 
 came to Bloomington to make a speech de 
 fending the principles of the Kansas and 
 Nebraska bill. Judge Lawrence Weldon, 
 who was then a young lawyer at Clinton, 
 and who had come up to hear the speech, 
 went with Mr. Stevenson and myself to call 
 upon and pay our respects to the "Little 
 Giant." We were presented to Judge 
 Douglas by Mr. Amzi McWilliams, then 
 a prominent Democratic lawyer of this city. 
 After we had been in Mr. Douglas* room 
 a few minutes, Mr. Lincoln came in, and 
 the Senator and he greeted each other 
 
 52 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 most cordially as old friends, and then 
 Mr. Douglas introduced Mr. Lincoln to 
 Judge Weldon. He said: "Mr. Lincoln, 
 I want to introduce you to Mr. Wel 
 don, a young lawyer who has come to 
 Illinois from Ohio, and has located at Clin 
 ton." Mr. Lincoln said: "Well, I am glad 
 of that; I go to Clinton sometimes my 
 self, and we will get acquainted. * This 
 was the beginning of an acquaintance which 
 ripened into a strong friendship and which, 
 founded on mutual admiration and respect, 
 grew and strengthened as the years passed, 
 and ended only in death. They met again 
 at Clinton; a sort of local partnership was 
 formed; they tried law suits and rode the 
 circuit together. Judge Weldon was the 
 active promoter of Mr. Lincoln s political 
 interests, and was an elector in the campaign 
 of 1860. I doubt if any man living knew 
 
 53 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Mr. Lincoln better, or had in a greater de 
 gree his confidence, than our distinguished 
 friend and citizen, Judge Lawrence Weldon. 
 In view of the recent controversy as to 
 Mr. Lincoln s temperance principles, as to 
 whether he was a "wine-bibber" or the 
 "president of a temperance society," the fol 
 lowing may be of interest: At this same 
 meeting I heard Mr. Lincoln define his posi 
 tion on the liquor question. This is authen 
 tic, as coming from Mr. Lincoln himself, 
 and ought to settle this question forever. 
 But it won t. The controversy will go on, 
 like the brook, "forever," until each side 
 convinces itself. This meeting I am speak 
 ing of, being a Democratic meeting, the com 
 mittee had placed on the sideboard of Judge 
 Douglas room (probably without his knowl 
 edge) a pitcher of water, some glasses and 
 a decanter of red liquor. As visitors called 
 
 54 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 they were invited to partake; most of the 
 Democrats declined. When Mr. Lincoln 
 rose to go, Mr. Douglas said, "Mr. Lin 
 coln, won t you take something?" Mr. Lin 
 coln said, "No, I think not." Mr. Douglas 
 said, "What! are you a member of the 
 Temperance Society?" "No," said Mr. 
 Lincoln, "I am not a member of any tem 
 perance society; but I am temperate, in // s, 
 that I don t drink anything." 
 
 At the same meeting, another incident oc 
 curred which I wish to relate. One of the 
 visitors who came to call on Senator Doug 
 las v/as the Hon. Jesse W. Fell. He was 
 an old friend, and had known Douglas when 
 he first came to the State. I remember very 
 well their cordial meeting and recall clearly 
 a part of their conversation. After talking 
 a while of old times and mutual friends, Mr. 
 Fell said, "Judge Douglas, many of Mr. 
 
 55 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Lincoln s friends would be greatly pleased 
 to hear a joint discussion between you and 
 him on these new and important questions 
 now interesting the people, and I will be 
 glad if such a discussion can be arranged." 
 Mr. Douglas seemed annoyed, and, after 
 hesitating a moment, said: "No; I won t 
 do it! I come to Chicago, and there I am 
 met by an old line abolitionist ; I come down 
 to the center of the State, and I am met by 
 an old line Whig; I go to the south end of 
 the State, and I am met by an anti-adminis 
 tration Democrat. I can t hold the aboli 
 tionist responsible for what the Whig says; 
 I can t hold the Whig responsible for what 
 the abolitionist says, and I can t hold either 
 responsible for what the Democrat says. It 
 looks like dogging a man over the State. 
 This is my meeting; the people have come 
 to hear me, and I want to talk to them." 
 
 56 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 Mr. Fell said: "Well, Judge, you may be 
 right; perhaps some other time it can be 
 arranged." 
 
 I have told this incident for a purpose. 
 Mr. Fell never gave up this idea of a joint 
 discussion. He was the first man to sug 
 gest it. From 1 854 to 1 858 he continued to 
 urge it, and to Mr. Jesse W. Fell, more than 
 to any other man, is due the credit of bring 
 ing about those great debates, the full influ 
 ence of which, upon Mr. Lincoln s fortunes, 
 the events of history and the fate of the 
 nation, no man is wise enough to know. Mr. 
 Fell was the intimate, devoted, and wise 
 friend of Mr. Lincoln. I speak with some 
 knowledge and with perfect sincerity when 
 I say that, with the possible exception of the 
 Hon. David Davis, Mr. Fell did more than 
 any other man, living or dead, to secure the 
 nomination of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency. 
 
 57 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Mr. Fell was one of our citizens. He 
 was Bloomington s first lawyer. His life 
 was a benefaction to this community. I am 
 pleased to take advantage of this opportu 
 nity to connect his name with the name of 
 the man he helped, and to pay a modest 
 tribute to one of the best men that ever lived. 
 
 In the fall of 1860, I met Mr. Lincoln 
 on the sidewalk in front of the old court 
 house. He had come from Springfield to 
 arrange some old suits, in view of his de 
 parture for Washington. He shook hands 
 with me, and said: "Well, you have gotten 
 to be a lawyer. Let me give you some ad 
 vice: Don t meddle with politics; stick to 
 the law." I replied: "Mr. President, I 
 fear your example may prove more alluring 
 than your advice." No! no!" said he; 
 "that was an accident." He passed into 
 the court house, and that was the last time 
 
 I ever saw him. 
 
 58 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 Personal reminiscences must be confined 
 to a time prior to 1860. The four years 
 following belong to the history of the world. 
 
 This is the time of the making of many 
 books, the writing of many histories, biog 
 raphies, short and long sketches in maga 
 zines and newspapers, critiques and tributes, 
 memoirs, stories, anecdotes and lies about 
 Mr. Lincoln. There are books by His Pri 
 vate Secretary, by the "Man Who Knew 
 Lincoln," by lots of men and women who 
 didn t know him, by a member of the New 
 York Bar, by members of other bars, by 
 editors, schoolmasters and preachers, by 
 "butlers, bakers and candlestick-makers," by 
 "old neighbors" and by "old clients" all 
 about "Lincoln as a Boy," "Lincoln the 
 Man," "Lincoln the Soldier," "Lincoln the 
 Lawyer," "Lincoln the Story-Teller," "Lin 
 coln the Lover," "Lincoln the Dreamer," 
 
 59 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 "Lincoln the Farmer," the "Wood Chop 
 per" and the "Foot Racer." There will be 
 delivered this 12th day of February, 1909, 
 more than fifty thousand speeches, addresses, 
 orations and memorials which will help to 
 swell this Lincolnian literary melange to the 
 proportions of an Alexandrian library. 
 
 It would be strange indeed, in view of the 
 many authors, the variety of publications and 
 the character of the subject, if there should 
 not be found an immense amount of mis 
 representation, false history, inaccurate esti 
 mates, false narrative, tiresome repetitions, 
 sentimental bathos, and silly white lies. Old 
 Doctor Johnson, when Boswell told him he 
 "intended to write his life," said, "If I be 
 lieved you, I would take yours." If Mr. 
 Lincoln had been told what some of his 
 friends intended to do, he would have said 
 with David, "Oh, that mine enemy would 
 write a book!" 
 
 60 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 The trouble is that men who never saw 
 Mr. Lincoln, and who have no adequate 
 conception of his life and character, have 
 gotten up old stories, incidents, traditions, 
 second-hand anecdotes, and rushed into print 
 to make history. Others even manufacture 
 goody-goody lies to increase his reputation. 
 Others write of him as a slouch, a buffoon, 
 an uneducated gawk, to increase the wonder 
 of his career. Others tell of artful prac 
 tices and doubtful tricks, to demonstrate his 
 shrewdness. Others recite sentimental and 
 impossible rescues and charities, which put 
 old Santa Claus to shame. One old citizen 
 tells of a wonderful conversation he had with 
 Mr. Lincoln at the time of the Douglas and 
 Lincoln debate at Bloomington a debate 
 which never took place. A reverend gentle 
 man tells how an actor friend of his was in 
 vited by Mr. Lincoln to "stay all night * 
 
 61 
 
L I N C O LN By MEN 
 
 with him at the White House during the 
 war; how they talked till midnight, and 
 how Mr. Lincoln told him all the secrets of 
 the war; how, when they had retired, the 
 actor heard some one apparently in great 
 distress ; how he got up and wandered about 
 the halls until he found Mr. Lincoln s pri 
 vate bedroom, and, looking through the key 
 hole, saw Mr. Lincoln on his knees, agoniz 
 ing in prayer, etc. I suppose this preacher 
 believed that proving Mr. Lincoln a saint 
 justified him in proving his friend a liar and 
 a sneak. 
 
 Another one of these stories is how Mr. 
 Lincoln manufactured an almanac and intro 
 duced it in evidence to confound a witness 
 who had sworn a certain night was moon 
 light, when the manufactured almanac 
 showed it was the dark of the moon, 
 thus saving his client s life. This story is 
 
 62 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 repeated in Mr. Churchill s book, "The 
 Crisis," and even in school books. No one 
 who knew Mr. Lincoln can think of him as 
 deliberately perpetrating a forgery upon the 
 court, and practicing a trick of which only 
 a pettifogger could conceive a silly trick, 
 too, which would certainly have been in 
 stantly exposed. 
 
 Another friend of Mr. Lincoln tells how 
 he accompanied him to Washington from 
 Springfield in 1 860, and how the President 
 "kept the entire company in constant roars of 
 laughter" by telling questionable stories and 
 jokes. It is probable this fellow was not 
 on the train at all. I think there have been 
 more lies told about Mr. Lincoln than about 
 Santa Claus. A curious thing is that they 
 are not usually malicious, but mostly told by 
 mistaken friends and for good purposes. 
 They are white lies, but I fear, unlike that 
 
 63 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 of Uncle Toby and the loving lie of Desde- 
 mona, they will never be blotted out by the 
 tears of the recording angel. 
 
 You and I can do little to stem this lit 
 erary flood, but we can thank God that the 
 subject of it is safe in the Pantheon, beyond 
 the domain of human praise, blame or 
 stupidity. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln dressed as well as the aver 
 age Western lawyer of his day. I do not 
 think he gave much time to the tying of his 
 necktie, and he could not have been said by 
 his best friends to be much of a dude, but 
 he was always respectably clothed. Mr. 
 Lincoln was not a story-teller in the sense 
 of "swapping stories," or telling a story for 
 the sake of the story itself. He was pos 
 sessed of great humor, and a wonderfully 
 acute sense of the ridiculous. He had that 
 marvelous "gift of the gods" which we some- 
 
 64 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 times call the "sixth sense." Unexpected 
 situations, curious expressions, odd sayings, 
 unusual appearances and humorous actions 
 made an impression on him. He remem 
 bered these and often used them as illustra 
 tions. /He seldom, if ever, told a story ex 
 cept to illustrate a point in his speech or argu 
 ment, and in this kind of illustration no man 
 was more apt. A few minutes after the 
 voting in the legislature, in 1858, when Mr. 
 Douglas was elected Senator, Mr. Lincoln 
 was asked by a friend, "How do you feel?" 
 Said he, "I feel like the boy who stumped 
 his toe: I am too big to cry and too badly 
 hurt to laugh." 
 
 Hon. Ezra M. Prince, a Bloomington 
 lawyer, who knew Lincoln very well, told 
 the following story : After the adjournment 
 of the Major Hall convention, the Repub 
 lican editors of Illinois met in convention at 
 
 65 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Bloomington. Mr. Lincoln attended and 
 was invited to address the meeting. He said 
 he was afraid he was out of his place. He 
 was not an editor, and had no business there ; 
 in fact, he was an interloper. He said: "I 
 feel like I once did when I met a woman 
 riding horseback in the woods. As I 
 stopped to let her pass, she also stopped, and, 
 looking at me intently, said, I do believe 
 you are the ugliest man I ever saw. Said I, 
 Madam, you probably are right, but I 
 can t help it! No, said she, *y u can t 
 help it, but you might stay at home! 
 
 Hon. John B. Henderson, who was a 
 Senator from Missouri during the war, told 
 the following story, as showing how Mr. 
 Lincoln could illustrate a situation by an in 
 cident: He said he was at the White 
 House, talking with Mr. Lincoln. It was 
 at a time when great pressure was being 
 
 66 
 
WHO K N E W HIM 
 
 brought upon the President by certain rad 
 ical members to induce him to issue an Eman 
 cipation Proclamation. Mr. Lincoln had 
 been telling Mr. Henderson about his 
 troubles in that regard. He did not think 
 the time was ripe, and was very much an 
 noyed at the persistence of three men whom 
 he named Senators Wade and Sumner, 
 and Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania. All 
 at once Mr. Lincoln said, "Henderson, did 
 you ever attend an old field school?" 
 "Yes," said the Senator. "Well," said Mr. 
 Lincoln, "I did, and a funny thing occurred 
 one day. You know, we had no reading 
 books, and we read out of the Bible. The 
 class would stand up in a row, the teacher 
 in front of them, and read verses, turn about. 
 This day we were reading about the He 
 brew children. As none of us were very 
 good readers, we were in the habit of count- 
 
 67 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 ing ahead and each one practicing on his 
 particular verse. Standing next to me was 
 a red-headed, freckled-faced boy, who was 
 the poorest reader in the class. It so fell 
 out that the names of the Hebrew children 
 appeared in his verse. He managed to 
 work through Shadrach, fell down at Me- 
 shach, and went all to pieces at Abednego. 
 The reading went on, and in due course of 
 time came round again, but when the turn 
 came near enough for the boy to see his 
 verse, he pointed to it in great consternation, 
 and whispered to me, Look! there come 
 
 them three d d fellers again.* And 
 
 there," said Mr. Lincoln, pointing out of 
 the window, "come those three same fel 
 lows." And sure enough, there were Wade, 
 Stevens and Sumner, coming up the walk. 
 Mr. Henderson added : "As I arose to take 
 my departure, the other gentlemen entered, 
 
 68 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 and there was a smile on Mr. Lincoln s face, 
 as if his thoughts had flown away over all 
 the years, from war and trouble, to the old 
 field school in the forest of Indiana." 
 
 No one called Mr. Lincoln "Abe." Judge 
 Davis, General Gridley, Mr. Isaac Funk, 
 Mr. Fell, Leonard Swett, General William 
 Ward Orme, Lawrence Weldon, William 
 McCullough, Judge Treat, John T. Stuart, 
 Owen T. Reeves, Reuben M. Benjamin, 
 and William H. Hanna all of them Lin 
 coln s early friends and associates, and all 
 of them elegant and dignified gentlemen 
 invariably addressed him as "Mr. Lincoln." 
 It was always Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, Mr. 
 Lincoln. 
 
 It is a mistake to think of Mr. Lincoln as 
 an ordinary man, even from the first. In 
 1844 he was a lawyer of state reputation; 
 nine years before he was in the legislature, 
 
 69 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 where he met such men as Douglas, McCler- 
 nand, Browning, Ebenezer Peck, Robert 
 Blackwell, Joseph Gillespie and Judge Pur 
 ple. These were great men, and he was 
 never dwarfed in their presence. I have 
 spoken of the men with whom he associated 
 and acted in our city. He was always easily 
 the leader; he was the talker; everybody 
 deferred to Mr. Lincoln; he had the center 
 of the stage by common consent. He knew 
 more of the matter in hand. He thought 
 more; he was a better talker, and was a 
 natural leader. 
 
 When elected to the presidency, Lincoln 
 did not select for his adviser, his private sec 
 retary and other unknown men, but William 
 H. Seward, Edward Bates, Salmon P. 
 Chase all of whom had been prominent 
 candidates in the Republican party for the 
 presidential nomination, and to these were 
 
 70 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 added other distinguished and leading men 
 who constituted his Cabinet. He did not 
 fear he would be overshadowed, and he 
 never was. From the first he was the equal 
 of any of them, and in Washington, as in 
 Bloomington, he was the "Leader of Men." 
 It is a mistake to think of Mr. Lincoln as 
 an uneducated man. The "kindergarten" 
 and "primary" courses were taken in a Ken 
 tucky cabin, with his mother as "principal." 
 Possibly he never learned at his school to 
 make maps, but he did learn "manners and 
 morals." At the age of nine he entered 
 the academy to prepare for college. This 
 "school of learning" was located in a "clear 
 ing" on his father s farm, a "little house in 
 the woods" in the State of Indiana. Here 
 his attention was first directed to "physical 
 culture." This study he was not permitted 
 to neglect. The "gymnasium" was well fur- 
 
 71 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 nished with "apparatus" axes, wedges, 
 mauls, log-chains, cross-bars, swinging sap 
 lings, etc. Then came "nature study out 
 on the campus." He found spring beauties 
 and sweet williams, May-apples and purple 
 grapes, and, out beyond, the prairie grasses 
 and the wild rose. From these, from tree, 
 shrub and plant, from form, color and per 
 fume, came that sense of beauty embodied 
 in those exquisite prose poems which we so 
 much love to read. This branch of study 
 included zoology. He learned the names 
 of animals, their nature, habits, instincts, his 
 tory and language. He knew when the 
 birds mated and how they built their homes, 
 and he learned well the lesson best worth 
 learning from this science to be kind and 
 gentle to all animal nature. 
 
 He had lessons in political economy the 
 value of money; supply and demand; the 
 
 72 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 virtue of economy; the proper sources of 
 wealth; the lessons of necessity, and the 
 value of labor. He closed his academic 
 course at the age of twenty-one, with the 
 honors of his class, and entered the univer 
 sity. He studied mathematics, became a 
 surveyor and naval architect. He became 
 a great linguist, and his success was all the 
 greater in that he confined himself to one 
 language. He devoted himself so diligently 
 to the study of history that he learned how 
 to make history. 
 
 He read and re-read Shakespeare, Burns 
 and Byron. He studied some of the best 
 English classics, and that wonderful volume 
 of Hebrew literature, the Bible. The result 
 of these "language studies" is the purest 
 English ever written. 
 
 Rhetoric and logic came easy. He was 
 a philosopher by nature. "Civil govern- 
 
 73 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 ment" he learned under Jefferson, Madison 
 and Hamilton. He took a post-graduate 
 course in law under Professors Blackstone 
 and Chitty, and from this department, as 
 from the university and the academy, he car 
 ried away all honors, and was the valedic 
 torian of his class. And yet there are pseudo 
 historians and pretentious litterati who speak 
 of Lincoln as illiterate and uneducated. I 
 say, he was the best educated man in his 
 day, if the best education means the best 
 equipment for the duties of life. 
 
 There are a great many good Americans 
 who are not exactly satisfied with Mr. Lin 
 coln s ancestry. They can stand his pov 
 erty all right that could be remedied but 
 a great man ought to have not only a father 
 and a mother, but several grandfathers. In 
 that marvelous transition from poverty to 
 affluence, from a cabin to the White House, 
 
 74 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 from obscurity to fame, the aching void is 
 the want of ancestry. Mr. Lincoln, in his 
 biography, gives the following account of his 
 family : 
 
 "I was born February 12, 1809, in Har- 
 din county, Kentucky. My parents were 
 both from Virginia, of undistinguished fami 
 lies second families, perhaps I should say. 
 My mother, who died in my tenth year, was 
 of a family of the name of Hanks, some of 
 whom now reside in Adams county, and 
 others in Macon county, Illinois. My pater 
 nal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emi 
 grated from Rockington county, Virginia, to 
 Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a 
 year or two later, he was killed by Indians, 
 not in battle, but by stealth, when he was 
 laboring to open a farm in the forest. His 
 ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Vir 
 ginia from Berks county, Pennsylvania. An 
 
 75 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 effort to identify them with the New Eng 
 land family of the same name ended in 
 nothing more definite than a similarity of 
 Christian names in both families." 
 
 But this modest account, splendid in its 
 simplicity, is by no means satisfying to the 
 inquirer after a nobler lineage. Since we 
 have known anything of the history of the 
 human race, there has been traceable a dis 
 position to make of the hero a demigod. 
 Achilles, the son of Pelius, was also the 
 son of Thetis. Alexander, after he had 
 conquered the world, was the son of Her 
 cules. Julius Caesar became a descendant 
 of Aeneas, who had a goddess for his 
 mother. Moses no longer has a Hebrew 
 mother, but is the son of the Pharaohs. This 
 is only the symbolism of that disposition of 
 human nature to account for great men and 
 great achievements by greatness of birth. 
 
 76 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 But there is hope! I bring you good 
 news! Mr. Lincoln s ancestors have been 
 discovered! Two "distinguished genealo 
 gists," one an American and one an Eng 
 lishman, have for years been collaborating to 
 trace the ancestry of the great President to 
 his English forebears, through colleges of 
 heraldry and the records of the courts of 
 chancery, for many generations. They 
 have made many wonderful discoveries. 
 The result of these genealogical labors is 
 a book (I quote from the publishers) 
 "which is a fine example of sound genealog 
 ical research, and is now offered at this 
 centenary of Lincoln s birth," to a waiting 
 public; "with elaborate tables, copious ap 
 pendices, richly illustrated, and including "a 
 defense of Thomas Lincoln, in one octavo 
 volume, at ten dollars net"! Mr. Lincoln 
 had written it all in twelve lines. These 
 
 77 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 "distinguished genealogists require a quarto 
 volume." Which do you like the better? 
 Seriously, is it not strange, and is it not de 
 plorable, that an intelligent American could 
 believe that Saxon or Norman lineage could 
 add anything to the fame of a man whose 
 presence already fills the world? If his 
 birth was lowly, his deeds are royal in that 
 land which men call fame. 
 
 We are all hero-worshipers, and often, 
 when our heroes are above the clouds, we 
 build unto ourselves graven images. Some 
 times their crowns are only tinsel, and 
 are easily tarnished; sometimes their halos 
 are only of paper and are very fragile. Men 
 will differ as to the chief foundation of Mr. 
 Lincoln s fame, but there will be no differ 
 ence as to its being real and lasting. Some 
 day, the true historian will appear. Some 
 day, out of all this rubbish and jumble of 
 
 78 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 inconsistencies, the true history will be writ 
 ten. Some day, when the rugged propor 
 tions of this great historic figure, by time 
 and distance have been rounded into form, 
 the real man will be known. Then, I think, 
 we will come to realize that, in the history 
 of a great man, chance is not so much a 
 factor as Providence. Then we will under 
 stand better and appreciate more, how price 
 less was our heritage, and that, although 
 given to the ages, "it was not taken from us." 
 
 79 
 
Address of 
 Richard Price Morgan 
 
RICHARD PRICE MORGAN 
 
COL. RICHARD PRICE MORGAN 
 
 Richard Price Morgan was born at Stockbridge, 
 Massachusetts, on September 17, 1828, and died 
 at Dwight, Illinois, May 20, 1910, which was after 
 the address published in this book was delivered. 
 In 1852, he came to Illinois in charge of the location 
 and construction of what is now the Chicago & 
 Alton Railroad, with his head-quarters at Bloom- 
 ington. Upon the completion of that road he 
 became its general superintendent, in which capac 
 ity he served until 1857. He founded the city 
 of Dwight, Illinois, and lived there with some 
 interruptions until his death. In his later life 
 he was connected with many very important 
 engineering projects, and became a great authority 
 in all engineering matters, serving at one time as 
 chief engineer of the United States Pacific Railway 
 Commission. In 1896 he was appointed by Pres 
 ident Cleveland a member of the board of engineers 
 to select a location and prepare plans and estimates 
 for a deep water harbor on the southern coast of 
 California. Later in life, the degree of Doctor 
 
 83 
 
of Engineering was conferred upon him by the 
 University of Illinois. 
 
 In 1860, when King Edward, then the Prince 
 of Wales, visited the United States, Mr. Morgan 
 entertained him, at Dwight, during his stay in 
 that town on a hunt. Mr. Morgan was a large 
 minded and public spirited man, and in his death, 
 the State lost a most useful citizen. Of faultless 
 dress and lofty and dignified bearing, "Col. Morgan" 
 as he was called, was a typical gentleman of the 
 old school. 
 
 84 
 
Address of 
 Richard Price Morgan 
 
 at Pontiac, Illinois, February 12, 19O9, 
 on "Lincoln at the Decatur Convention" 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow Citizens of Liv 
 ingston County: 
 
 We have assembled to celebrate the com 
 ing of Abraham Lincoln, the mightiest hu 
 man power and inspiration for good ever 
 given to mankind. This is an auspicious 
 day for this country and for the oppressed 
 of all nations. It is being most earnestly 
 celebrated throughout the world wherever 
 Christianity has lifted up the people. In 
 joining with you to celebrate this great 
 period in the march of time, and in the his 
 tory of our country, it is my duty to you 
 as chairman of your delegation to the Re- 
 
 85 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 publican State Convention at Decatur, Illi 
 nois, on the ninth and tenth of May, 1860, 
 to give an accurate account to you of my 
 stewardship. 
 
 Your delegation was selected at a county 
 convention held in the old courthouse in 
 Pontiac, early in May. The personnel of 
 the delegation was: The late Hon. Jason 
 W. Strevell, William Gagan, A. J. Crop- 
 sey, deceased, and Richard Price Morgan. 
 It is fitting for me to say in this connection 
 that Mr. Strevell, of Pontiac, was the first 
 delegate chosen in the County Convention, 
 and by priority and also by his fine abilities 
 he naturally became chairman; but, on 
 account of my acquaintance with and friend 
 ship for Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Strevell urged 
 and, by his own motion, caused me to act 
 as chairman of the delegation. I may 
 appropriately add that your delegation 
 
 86 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 worked in the convention in perfect harmony 
 with the twelve delegates from McLean 
 County, all of whom have passed away. 
 Their enthusiasm for Lincoln was un 
 bounded, and they claimed that the flint 
 was first struck by Lincoln at Bloomington, 
 that started the patriotic fires which lighted 
 his way for the presidency. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with and 
 friendship for Mr. Lincoln began in 1853, 
 and continued until his death in 1 865. The 
 instructions we received when we were 
 appointed delegates were to vote as a unit 
 for State officers, and especially we were 
 charged to do all in our power to secure 
 the passage of a resolution pledging the 
 State of Illinois to the National Conven 
 tion, about to assemble in Chicago, its pa 
 triotism and integrity, as represented in the 
 person of Abraham Lincoln, to secure his 
 
 nomination for the presidency. 
 
 87 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was personally present at the 
 convention, and your delegates, as all others, 
 had ample opportunity to meet and freely 
 converse with him, upon the topics of the 
 day. I shall not attempt to describe the 
 intense patriotism which animated that most 
 notable assembly. But to give you some 
 idea of its spirit, I will repeat a short sen 
 tence from the speech of our War governor, 
 Richard Yates, in acknowledging his nomi 
 nation. He said: "Let us hope that the 
 South will not attempt to destroy this Union ; 
 but, if it should, flaming giants will spring 
 from every cornfield in the State of Illinois." 
 
 After the State business was concluded, 
 the following resolution was unanimously 
 adopted with unbounded enthusiasm. Re 
 solved: "That Abraham Lincoln is the 
 choice of the Republican party in Illinois for 
 the presidency, and that the delegates from 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 this State are instructed to use all honor 
 able means to procure his nomination by the 
 Chicago Convention, and that their vote be 
 cast as a unit for him." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was then escorted into the 
 wigwam and to the platform by a commit 
 tee selected by the chair. His appearance 
 before the convention was the signal for 
 another outburst of most hearty welcome. 
 He received it without a smile, but the be 
 nignant expression of his eyes and face, and 
 also his whole attitude, disclosed to every 
 man in that multitude the affectionate grati 
 tude of his heart. 
 
 The response of Mr. Lincoln to the reso 
 lution was in a few grateful words of thanks. 
 At the close of his remarks, Livingston 
 County first led off and gave the word 
 Three times Three for Abraham Lincoln, 
 our next President. After these, nine cheers 
 
 89 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 were given with a will, the word came again 
 from another part of the convention Three 
 times Three for Honest Old Abe, our next 
 President. This was followed by another 
 and another. 
 
 When quiet was partially restored, Mr. 
 Lincoln came slowly down from the plat 
 form, shaking the hundreds of hands which 
 were extended to him. At this juncture the 
 rail committee, headed by Mr. Hanks, 
 pressed through the crowd with several rails, 
 carried them to the platform, and standing 
 them up stood by them. Without further 
 word the crowd, into which Lincoln had 
 pressed his way some distance, commenced 
 to shout "Identify your work." He was 
 at once seized upon and carried in the arms 
 and over the heads of the crowd to the 
 platform again and placed beside the rails. 
 Then the Convention, being again seated, 
 
 90 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 shouted, "Identify your work! Identify your 
 work!" After a moment s hesitation, ad 
 dressing himself to the Convention, he said, 
 quite solemnly, "I cannot say that I split 
 these rails." Turning to Mr. Hanks and 
 the committee, and looking at the rails, Mr. 
 Lincoln asked: "Where did you get the 
 rails?" Mr. Hanks replied: "At the 
 farm you improved down on the Sanga- 
 mon." "Well," said Lincoln, "that was a 
 long time ago. However, it is possible I 
 may have split these rails, but I cannot iden 
 tify them." Again the Convention shouted, 
 "Identify your work! Identify your work!" 
 At this time the care visible on Mr. Lincoln s 
 face gave way to a pleasant smile and he 
 again said, "What kind of timber are they?" 
 The committee replied, "Honey locust and 
 black walnut." "Well," said Lincoln, his 
 smile increasing, "that is lasting timber, and 
 
 91 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 it may be that I split the rails." Then he 
 seemed to examine the rails critically, his 
 smile all the time increasing, until his con 
 tagious merriment was visible, and he laugh 
 ingly said, "Well, boys, I can only say I 
 have split a great many better looking ones." 
 
 This tactful turn was met by a storm of 
 approval, and three times three were then 
 given, and three more for "Honest Abraham 
 Lincoln, the rail candidate, our next Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 The Convention then adjourned sine die. 
 In a moment there was a rush of delegates 
 to the platform. The rails were seized upon 
 and pieces of some of them were sawed off 
 for souvenirs. I am happy to say that Liv 
 ingston County was again among the first 
 to get two pieces, and that I have with me 
 as a token of the rail episode of that con 
 vention parts of the pieces of rails brought 
 
 92 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 home to Livingston County, now in the form 
 of a gavel. 
 
 Nothing could have afforded more de 
 cisive proof that Lincoln did split the rails 
 than his adroit presentation of the circum 
 stantial evidence. This was at once recog 
 nized by every delegate and was received 
 with delightful satisfaction. The signifi 
 cance of this rail episode in respect to the 
 character of Mr. Lincoln and his subsequent 
 conduct of the affairs of our country through 
 its most dreadful trial, will be manifest to 
 all thoughtful persons. His honesty, sagacity 
 and tact were the foundations upon which 
 he stood immovable, when saving our coun 
 try, until the day of his death. 
 
 I have for this reason considered it my 
 duty in this respect especially to report to 
 you and in the interest of accurate history 
 state the facts which I have for so many 
 
 93 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 years been possessed of in data and in an 
 excellent memory. I feel so assured in what I 
 have said that I do not believe it possible for 
 any one to raise reasonable doubt of its gen 
 eral accuracy, nor shall I recede from any 
 part of it without the indisputable proof of 
 eye-witnesses like myself. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of the conven 
 tion, your delegation called on Mr. Lincoln 
 to give him its best wishes and bid him good 
 bye for Livingston county. At that inter 
 view he said, in answer to a question as to 
 his chances: "I reckon I ll get about a hun 
 dred votes at Chicago, and I have a notion 
 that will be the high mark for me." This 
 was the last duty of your delegation, and 
 this report briefly represents the primary ac 
 tion of Livingston county in giving Abraham 
 Lincoln to the world. 
 
 I have been requested to refer to some 
 
 94 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 personal reminiscences of my relations with 
 Mr. Lincoln. I had the good fortune to be 
 come acquainted with him in Bloomington in 
 1853, when I was division engineer, build 
 ing the Chicago & Alton Railroad. Bloom 
 ington was then a village of 1 ,200 people, 
 overcrowded with emigrants, land buyers, 
 railway contractors and laborers. Being 
 somewhat permanently located, I was fortu 
 nate enough to have a large room on the 
 first floor of my boarding-house, to which 
 circumstance I am indebted for my acquaint 
 ance with Mr. Lincoln. On a hot afternoon, 
 I think in the autumn season, I was seated 
 in my room with the door partly open to the 
 main hall, when I overheard the following 
 conversation: "Indeed, if you cannot ac 
 commodate me, I am sure I do not know 
 what I shall do. I am here for this term 
 of the Circuit Court, and have tried every- 
 
 95 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 where to find accommodations, but so far 
 have failed, and I see no probability of suc 
 cess unless you can care for me." The land 
 lady, to whom the above was addressed, re 
 plied: "Mr. Lincoln, I would like very 
 much to give you a room and board while 
 you are in the city, but I have no room or 
 bed to offer you; but if it will help you 
 any to come here for your meals, I will do 
 the best I can for you." "Well," said Mr. 
 Lincoln, "you are very kind, but I have no 
 where to lay my head." 
 
 Those being early days of western life, 
 of which I had seen something, I stepped 
 to the hall door and for the first time saw 
 the tall man of destiny. After a moment, I 
 said to the landlady: "Is this gentleman a 
 friend of yours?" To which she replied, 
 introducing him as "Mr. Lincoln, of Spring 
 field, a lawyer who is practicing in the court 
 
 96 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 of McLean county. He is a friend of mine, 
 and I am very sorry indeed that I am unable 
 to accommodate him." After looking at 
 Mr. Lincoln a moment, and he at me, with a 
 rather inquiring expression, I said: "If you 
 will put a bed in my room, which is too 
 large for one person in these crowded times, 
 I would be pleased to have Mr. Lincoln 
 room with me during his stay in the city." 
 As I finished this remark, Lincoln threw 
 back his head a little, and with it the long 
 black hair that came over his forehead, and 
 said: "Now, that is what I call clever." 
 
 I thus became the roommate of the great 
 est man since Washington, the peer of any 
 man in the love of liberty, justice and mercy ; 
 and I wish to record here that during the 
 time of this stay several weeks I learned 
 from him many things which have been of 
 priceless value to me. 
 
 *In common western parlance the word "clever was often used in 
 the sense oi kind or accommodating. 
 
 97 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Although his time was very much en 
 grossed by court proceedings, he seemed to 
 strive, although I was twenty years his 
 junior, to make his companionship interesting 
 and serviceable to me. I was told by him 
 of many things and stories of the earlier set 
 tlers in Illinois, and also he recited selections 
 of poetry, one of them being the poem, "Oh, 
 why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" 
 of which he was very fond. 
 
 One evening he said: "The people of 
 McLean county, before they became inter 
 ested in railway construction, and when 
 Pekin, on the Illinois River, was their mar 
 ket, had very little to occupy their time, espe 
 cially at some seasons of the year. They 
 would come to Bloomington on Saturdays 
 with all sorts of vehicles wagons, carts, and 
 on horseback and put in most of the day 
 in fun, horse racing, settling old feuds, etc. 
 
 98 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 When evening came and they were about to 
 separate and return to their homes, almost 
 every man, besides being well filled before 
 starting, carried with him a good-sized brown 
 jug in the front end of his wagon or cart." 
 
 Speaking of the relative merits of New 
 England rum and corn juice, as he called it, 
 to illuminate the human mind, he told me 
 this story of John Moore, who resided south 
 of Blooming Grove, and subsequently be 
 came State Treasurer: Mr. Moore came to 
 Bloomington one Saturday in a cart drawn 
 by a fine pair of young red steers. For some 
 reason he was a little late starting home, and 
 besides his brown jug, he otherwise had a 
 good load on. In passing through the grove 
 that night, one wheel of his cart struck a 
 stump or root and threw the pole out of the 
 ring of the yoke. The steers, finding them 
 selves free, ran away, and left John Moore 
 
 99 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 sound asleep in his cart, where he remained 
 all night. Early in the morning he roused 
 himself, and looking over the side of the 
 cart and around in the woods, he said: "If 
 my name is John Moore, I ve lost a pair of 
 steers; if my name ain t John Moore, I ve 
 found a cart." After a good laugh together, 
 Lincoln said: "Morgan, if you ever tell this 
 story, you must add that Moore told it on 
 himself." 
 
 On the adjournment of the Circuit Court, 
 Mr. Lincoln returned to Springfield, after 
 which I only met him incidentally when visit 
 ing Springfield, until the following autumn, 
 when I became superintendent of the Chi 
 cago & Alton Railway, soon after which I 
 engaged the services of Mr. Lincoln as attor 
 ney and counselor for the company, and 
 thereafter had frequent business intercourse 
 with him. 
 
 too 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 It is not necessary for me to speak of his 
 then acknowledged ability at the bar, but to 
 illustrate his touch of humor and knowledge 
 of human nature, which was ever present 
 with him, I quote a letter which I received 
 from him, inclosing an expired annual pass 
 for 1855, and requesting its renewal, which 
 was due him as counsel for the company : 
 
 "Springfield, Feb. 13, 1856. R. P. 
 
 Morgan, Esq. : Says Tom to John, Here s 
 your old rotten wheelbarrow. I ve broke it 
 usin on it. I wish you would mend it, case 
 I shall want to borrow it this arternoon. 
 Acting on this as a precedent, I say, *Here s 
 your old *chalked hat. I wish you would 
 take it and send me a new one, case I shall 
 want to use it by the 1st of March. Yours 
 truly, A. Lincoln." 
 
 I have always understood that this letter 
 was written to me more as an acquaintance 
 and friend than in my official capacity. The 
 expression "chalked hat" was at that era, in 
 
 101 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 railroading, at least, quite generally used in 
 connection with persons who were fortunate 
 enough to possess annual passes, and when 
 they were called upon by the conductors, the 
 holders would say, "I have a chalked hat," 
 or, in brief, "I chalk." 
 
 It was in the summer of the year that I 
 received this letter 1 856 that I stood 
 next to Mr. Lincoln and heard him say: 
 "You can fool some of the people all of the 
 time, and all of the people some of the time, 
 but you can t fool all of the people all of 
 the time." He was addressing an assem 
 blage of about three or four hundred people 
 from the raised platform of the entrance to 
 the Pike House, in Bloomington, 111., upon 
 the subject of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 
 and reviewing the arguments of Douglas in 
 support of it. His application of his epi 
 gram was so apt and so forcible that I have 
 
 102 
 
WHO K N E W HIM 
 
 never forgotten it, and I believe that no 
 verbal modification of it would be accurate. 
 In his final peroration of that address, refer 
 ring again to the arguments favoring the 
 Kansas-Nebraska Act, he said, with wonder 
 ful energy and earnestness: "Surely, surely, 
 my friends, you cannot be deceived by such 
 sophistries." 
 
 The occurrences of which I have spoken 
 were all anterior to the war to preserve the 
 Union. Among some treasures I have is an 
 autograph letter, written in 1863, in which 
 Mr. Lincoln declares himself to be my per 
 sonal acquaintance and friend. 
 
 I consider it my duty to mention one fact 
 that may otherwise be lost in the history of 
 our county, as seemingly there is no record 
 of it. Upon the call of President Lincoln 
 for 75,000 volunteers, "Flaming Giants" 
 did spring from the cornfields of Livingston 
 
 103 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 county. On the 1 6th of April, the morning 
 after the call, at 5 o clock, I had the honor 
 of standing at the door of the Adjutant Gen 
 eral s office in the old State House at Spring 
 field, holding in my hand a muster roll of 
 eighty volunteers from Livingston county. It 
 was recorded as No. 13, twelve others only 
 standing ahead of me in the line, and before 
 the office opened there were as many behind 
 me, holding up their muster rolls. These 
 volunteers from Livingston county were not 
 mustered in as a company, because there 
 were more volunteers in the State at large 
 than its quota under that call. Most of these 
 men immediately sought service in Regiments 
 Seven to Twelve, inclusive, which consti 
 tuted the First Brigade of Illinois Volunteers, 
 organized from April 25 to May 10, 1861. 
 
 104 
 
Recollections of 
 Judge Franklin Blades 
 
JUDGE FRANKLIN BLADES 
 
JUDGE FRANKLIN BLADES 
 
 Judge Franklin Blades was born November 29, 
 1830. in Rush County, Indiana. He was the son 
 of a country physician, but lost his father at the 
 age of sixteen. In his youth, there were few schools 
 in Indiana, and none free. He therefore got in 
 youth only such education as he could pick up at 
 home and under private tutors. He was, however, 
 fortunate enough to acquire in his youth a love 
 for good books, and in time he became a man of 
 cultivated mind through the study of such authors 
 as Irving, Goldsmith, Johnson, Shakespeare, Ad- 
 dison and others. In 1852 he graduated from the 
 Rush Medical College of Chicago, and subse 
 quently took post-graduate courses in medicine 
 in the University of Pennsylvania and in Jefferson 
 Medical College at Philadelphia. He early settled 
 down to his life work at Watseka, Illinois. He 
 was the editor of a republican newspaper, support 
 ing Fremont for the presidency in 1856. In the 
 latter year he was also elected to the Illinois Legis 
 lature. Again, in 1860, he was elected and 
 served in the legislature. 
 107 
 
In 1858, having studied law in the meantime, 
 he was admitted to the Illinois bar. Subsequently, 
 in 1862, he reverted to his original profession of 
 medicine long enough to serve as surgeon of the 
 76th Illinois Infantry. In 1864 he was a Repub 
 lican presidential elector for Illinois, and had the 
 satisfaction of voting for his friend, Abraham 
 Lincoln, for his second term. In 1877 Blades was 
 elected to the circuit bench for a short term, and 
 in June, 1879, he was re-elected for a full term of 
 six years. In January, 1888, because of ill health, 
 he removed to California, and is now living and 
 raising oranges at Pomona in that State. A short 
 biography of himself which the Judge prepared 
 for the publishers of this book, closes with these 
 modest words: 
 
 "And now as I near the close of my long life 
 I recall with affection, and almost tearful 
 gratitude, the memory of the many friends whose 
 kindly offices did so much to promote such success 
 as I have had, and which I think quite equal to 
 my merits." 
 
 108 
 
Recollections oi 
 Judge Franklin Blades 
 
 I had some personal acquaintance with 
 Mr. Lincoln. The first time I met him 
 was in a caucus of the Republican members 
 of the Illinois House of Representatives, of 
 which I was a member, in the winter of 
 1857. The meeting was held in Mr. Lin 
 coln s office in Springfield, Illinois. I was 
 much interested in observing his homely, 
 friendly, cordial manners, and the candor 
 and good sense in what he had to say. 
 There were those of the Senate and House 
 who had been elected in opposition to Dem 
 ocratic candidates, but who had not become 
 identified with the new Republican party. 
 These men not long afterward became Re- 
 
 109 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 publicans. Among these was Senator Gil- 
 lespie, subsequently generally known as 
 Judge Gillespie. He had been an old Whig 
 friend of Mr. Lincoln. During the session 
 of our caucus, Mr. Lincoln said: "Boys, 
 what do you say to having old Joe Gillespie 
 in here?" There being general assent, the 
 Senator was sent for, and it was interesting 
 to see the cordial, friendly manner in which 
 they greeted each other. I afterward came 
 to know Judge Gillespie quite well, and 
 have heard him say many an affectionate 
 word concerning his old friend, years after 
 that old friend had, by the universal acclaim 
 of mankind, been enshrined among the im 
 mortals. 
 
 I once attended a reception by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lincoln at their old-fashioned resi 
 dence in Springfield. The invitation I re 
 ceived was in the handwriting of Mr. Lin- 
 no 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 coin. I have it yet. The guests were re 
 ceived in an informal and friendly manner 
 by Mrs. Lincoln. On being ushered up 
 stairs I found Mr. Lincoln and the Demo 
 cratic State Auditor, whose name, as I re 
 member it, was Jones, sitting on a high post 
 bed, chatting with each other, Mr. Lincoln 
 particularly greeting all who came into the 
 room. Mr. Lincoln was not then talked of 
 for the presidency certainly not outside of 
 his own State. 
 
 In the spring of 1858, having been ad 
 mitted to the bar, and intending to give up 
 the profession of medicine, I wrote to Mr. 
 Lincoln, requesting the use of his name as 
 a reference on my professional card as a 
 lawyer. He had known me as a physician, 
 and in writing to him I said nothing about 
 my change of profession, and so in replying 
 he seemed to be in doubt as to whether I 
 
 ill 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 was the same Blades he had known. So 
 he wrote: "I do not know whether you are 
 Dr. Blades or not. If you are Dr. Blades, 
 you may use my name; if you are not Dr. 
 Blades, if Dr. Blades says you may use 
 my name, you may do so." 
 
 Some time afterward I met him in Spring 
 field, and taking me by the hand he said, 
 with an amused twinkle in his eye: "You 
 got my letter, did you?" And then he re 
 peated it. The excuse I offer for intro 
 ducing this incident, so personal to myself, 
 is its quaintness of style, so characteristic of 
 him, and so graphically apparent in the 
 famous and caustic reply to Mr. Greeley. 
 I don t know what became of the letter, but 
 I think that it was stolen from among my 
 papers when packing for my move to Cali 
 fornia. 
 
 I was a member of the Republican State 
 
 112 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 convention of 1858, before which Lincoln 
 made the famous speech in which he re 
 peated the saying of Christ, that a house 
 divided against itself cannot stand, and in 
 which he contended that the States of the 
 Union must all become free or all slave. 
 He gave no hint that he was in favor of divi 
 sion, or that he was in favor of the domestic 
 institutions of all the States becoming the 
 same; but Stephen A. Douglas, in cam 
 paigning over the State, seeking re-election 
 as Senator, perverted and misstated and mis 
 represented what he said, and contended that 
 Mr. Lincoln was really in favor of making 
 the domestic institutions the same in all the 
 States. Mr. Lincoln had said that he did 
 not believe that the Union would be dis 
 solved, but did believe that the opponents 
 of slavery would arrest the further spread 
 of it, and place it where the public mind 
 
 113 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 would rest in the belief that it was in the 
 course of ultimate extinction; or its advo 
 cates "would push it forward, till it would 
 become alike lawful in all the States, old 
 as well as new, North as well as South." 
 His manner of delivery of that speech was 
 calm, deliberate, dispassionate and without 
 a single gesture. There were over-cautious 
 Republicans who thought that he had bet 
 ter have omitted some things that he said; 
 and, in fact, it formed the principal capital 
 stock of Mr. Douglas in his campaign for 
 the senatorship; but the result demonstrated 
 that Lincoln was a great political prophet 
 and statesman. 
 
 I was a delegate to the State Republican 
 convention which met at Decatur, the county 
 seat of Macon county, in 1860, which se 
 lected the delegates to the National Conven 
 tion, then soon to meet in Chicago for the 
 
 114 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 purpose of nominating a candidate for the 
 presidency, and which instructed those dele 
 gates to support Mr. Lincoln s candidacy. 
 Mr. Lincoln was present and was seated on 
 the platform during the session of the con 
 vention. While the convention was in ses 
 sion, Mr. Hanks, a cousin of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and another man came into the hall, bear 
 ing aloft two old rails, between which was 
 stretched a banner on which was printed the 
 statement that the rails were a part of a lot 
 of rails made by Mr. Lincoln in the county 
 of Macon, many years before. Mr. Hanks 
 had at the time worked with Mr. Lincoln 
 in making the rails, and personally no doubt 
 remembered better than Mr. Lincoln could 
 then recall that the statement was true. 
 When the rails were brought in, the entire 
 body of the delegates rose to their feet, wav 
 ing their hats and cheering at the top of 
 
 115 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 their voices, and shouting, "Lincoln! Lin 
 coln! Lincoln!" He came to the front of 
 the platform looking very much amused, 
 holding his hands folded in front of him. 
 He spoke briefly, saying it was true that 
 when he was a young man he made some 
 rails in Macon county, but he really could 
 not say whether the rails brought in by Mr. 
 Hanks were a part of the lot or not. I 
 have seen a statement in some magazine that 
 this incident occurred in the National Con 
 vention at Chicago, but I personally know 
 that it did not, for I was present in both con 
 ventions, though not a delegate in the Chi 
 cago convention. Of course, it would not 
 have been tolerated in the National Conven 
 tion, where there was more than one candi 
 date for the nomination. 
 
 I do not think that Mr. Lincoln was very 
 confident of being nominated at Chicago. A 
 
 116 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 friend and neighbor of his from Springfield 
 said that before coming away he inquired of 
 him if he was going to attend the conven 
 tion. Mr. Lincoln replied that he was not; 
 that he was most too much of a candidate 
 to attend, and hardly enough of a candidate 
 to stay away. 
 
 I was considerably younger than Mr. Lin 
 coln and, besides, did not see him frequently 
 enough to become on terms of intimacy with 
 him. He knew enough of me to regard me 
 as a personal and political friend, and I knew 
 enough of him to know that many of the 
 purported anecdotes that I have often read 
 of him were gross and scandalous caricatures 
 of him. He was hearty and cordial in man 
 ner toward those with whom he was on terms 
 of friendship. I was particularly indignant 
 when I read the coarse and vulgar fiction of 
 him which appeared in "The Crisis." The 
 
 117 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 vulgar, ill-bred familiarity which, in "The 
 Crisis", characterizes the supposed intercourse 
 between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Joseph Medill 
 is repulsive and without the least foundation 
 in the character of either of them. Medill 
 was considerably younger than Mr. Lincoln, 
 and had no intimate or long-standing ac 
 quaintance with him. While Mr. Lincoln 
 was not in the least assertive of his dignity 
 and self-respect, yet there was that about 
 him which would prevent any one from slap 
 ping him on the back and calling him "Abe," 
 except it might possibly be the few who were 
 familiar with him from his young manhood 
 and who had kept pace with him in his grad 
 ually increasing social standing. 
 
 In the long past I occasionally heard inter 
 esting and amusing anecdotes of Mr. Lin 
 coln by Judge Weldon and others who used 
 to meet him at the bar of the old eighth 
 
 118 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 judicial circuit, in which Judge David Davis 
 presided, but I cannot recall them with suffi 
 cient distinctness to make it worth while to 
 relate them. It is true I might supply the 
 want of memory by fictions, as some of his 
 biographers have done. 
 
 An anecdote told me many years ago by 
 my friend Beckwith, a lawyer of Danville, 
 Illinois, now lamented as dead, I will ven 
 ture to relate. Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Vor- 
 hees, a distinguished lawyer, a sometime 
 United States Senator for Indiana, were en 
 gaged on opposite sides of a suit in the Cir 
 cuit Court of Danville. In arguing a ques 
 tion to the judge, Mr. Vorhees made some 
 discourteous and rather offensive remarks 
 about Mr. Lincoln. When Mr. Lincoln 
 came to reply he so unmercifully and at the 
 same time so humorously ridiculed Mr. Vor- 
 
 119 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 hees that some of the lawyers ran out of the 
 court house and lay down on the grass in 
 explosions of laughter. Mr. Vorhees took 
 great offense, and in the evening called at 
 the room where Mr. Lincoln, Judge Davis 
 and some others were engaged in social chat, 
 and furiously assailed not assaulted Mr. 
 Lincoln, but he came off much worsted, as 
 he had in the discussion before the judge. 
 
 It is much to be lamented that Judge 
 David Davis did not leave on record his 
 recollections of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln 
 practiced many years before him, and they 
 were probably on more intimate terms than 
 any others after Mr. Lincoln began the prac 
 tice of the law. Judge Davis was a man 
 of infinite humor, which often cropped out 
 while on the bench, and could heartily appre 
 ciate the humor of Mr. Lincoln. Why did 
 
 120 
 
WHO K N E W HIM 
 
 he not leave memoirs of his intimate friend, 
 to be read through all time? 
 
 In 1861 I was a member of the Illinois 
 House of Representatives, elected as a Re 
 publican, and was present during the entire 
 regular session, beginning in January, and 
 also attended the special session convened in 
 April, on the calling for 75,000 troops by 
 the President on the fall of Fort Sumter. 
 That winter, during the sitting of the regu 
 lar session, was the most gloomy and de 
 spondent period of my life. I felt sure that 
 the Southern States meant permanent seces 
 sion even if they had to fight for it. But 
 they did not anticipate civil war. In the 
 South it was generally believed that the 
 people of the North were so commercialized 
 and were so divided in partisanship that war 
 for the Union would be "impossible." On 
 
 121 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 the other hand, the levity with which the 
 secession movement was for the most part 
 regarded by Republicans, and which was 
 distinctly manifest among the Republican 
 members of the legislature, to me was inex 
 plicable and depressing. Sensible men, and 
 even good friends, regarded my gloomy ap 
 prehension as next thing to absurd. 
 
 During the session of the legislature, a 
 convention of the Democracy was held in 
 the hall which had been given up to them 
 by vote of the House. I was a lobby on 
 looker of that convention, and the incendiary 
 speeches which were made and applauded 
 to the echo, and the misapprehensions of Mr. 
 Lincoln, were so vividly impressed on my 
 memory that now, nearly fifty years after, 
 they are recalled with almost startling dis 
 tinctness. Among my papers I have pre- 
 122 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 served a copy of the Missouri Republican 
 (now the Missouri Republic), of the date 
 of January 19, 1861, purporting to give a 
 verbatim report of the speeches. Among the 
 most eloquent was that of Henry S. Fitch, 
 Buchanan s United States District Attorney 
 for the Northern District of Illinois. The 
 speech itself was not disloyal, but the re 
 sponses it drew out showed the temper of 
 the members to be as favorable to the South 
 as the most fiery secessionist could wish. 
 Fitch played on that convention as if it were 
 a musical instrument. Among other things, 
 he said: "This Union was purchased by 
 blood; it was cemented by blood; and isn t 
 it worth saving by blood now?" "No, 
 No!" was the universal response. "I say 
 it is," said he, and that was hissed. And 
 then he said, "But blood won t save it," and 
 
 123 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 that was uproariously applauded. The re 
 port in the paper states that when he said it 
 was worth saving by blood he was greatly 
 applauded, but that applause came from Re 
 publicans who had gathered in the lobby. 
 Poor, dear, loyal, brilliantly eloquent fel 
 low! he died in the far South, a major in 
 the Union army. 
 
 A Mr. William Homes made a speech. 
 Among other things, he said : 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Convention and Fel 
 low Citizens: I know one thing to be true: 
 that it would be no difficult matter to pro 
 duce civil war in Illinois. I know that the 
 state of feeling which might be fanned into 
 a flame is so deep here in this city now that, 
 if it correctly represents, as I believe it does, 
 the feelings of the State, it might break out 
 into an act of secession at home, and Illinois 
 thus become a divided State." 
 
 124 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 R. T. Merrick, of Chicago, among many 
 other things, said : 
 
 "I feel that I cannot be in error when I 
 say that this Union never can be saved fop 
 force. Coercion! force! This is war 
 war upon the Southern States not on South 
 Carolina alone not on the cotton States 
 alone but upon the entire South. For be 
 assured, gentlemen, that whether the border 
 States follow the secession of States of the 
 extreme South or not, they will most cer 
 tainly regard any hostile attack upon these 
 Southern States as an attack upon them 
 selves. It will be a war, then, upon fifteen 
 States. Are you prepared for such a war? 
 (Shouts of Wo, no! Fight here! ) No, 
 gentlemen, thank God! fanaticism has not 
 yet so hardened our hearts that we are ready 
 to imbrue our hands in the blood of our 
 brothers. (Applause.) Such a war would 
 
 125 
 
L I N C OLN By MEN 
 
 be most accursed, wicked, unjust, cruel and 
 diabolical ; and if the Republican leaders ex 
 pect that it would be a war in the Southern 
 States a war at a distance so far removed 
 from the North that those who had brought 
 it on would not even be disturbed by the roar 
 of its cannon, let them undeceive themselves 
 at once. The tone and feeling of this conven 
 tion responds to my own ; and I am satisfied 
 that, if such a conflict ever comes, it will be 
 war in the North, and not "war in the South. 
 (Applause.) It will be war in Chicago 
 war in Springfield war on the broad prai 
 ries of Illinois. (Loud applause.) Before 
 the patriotic people of this State will allow 
 an invading force to pass beyond its borders 
 to subjugate the South, they will make one 
 vast mausoleum of your State. (Continued 
 applause.)" 
 
 Mr. Richardson, not long before a Sen- 
 
 126 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 ator of the United States, in his speech to 
 the convention, said: "Why, Mr. Lincoln 
 has said, and Mr. Seward has said, Away 
 with this doctrine of the inequality of races. 
 It is in violation of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence. The government cannot endure 
 half slave and half free. Mr. Seward said 
 in Ohio: You, my friends, must turn in 
 and help me; we can extinguish this thing 
 of slavery. How false he must have 
 known his words to be ! 
 
 Now, at the time this convention was 
 being held, the South Carolina legislature 
 was pushing through a bill to call out and 
 arm 1 0,000 troops ; and batteries were being 
 erected to bombard Fort Sumter. Four 
 States had already seceded. Senators and 
 representatives from these States were resign 
 ing from the House and Senate. And yet, 
 if this threatened war on the part of the 
 
 127 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 South were resisted, we were told there 
 would be war in Illinois war in Chicago. 
 No word of sympathy for Mr. Lincoln, who, 
 in his home, not much more than a stone s 
 throw from the hall of the convention, was 
 brooding sadly, weighed down with the 
 awful responsibility that rested on him to 
 save the Union, if, in the face of a united 
 South, and the great body of an intensely 
 hostile party in the North, it could be saved. 
 Everything was said calculated to encourage 
 the secessionists. Mr. Lincoln and the man 
 he had determined on to be his Secretary 
 of State were misrepresented as holding senti 
 ments hostile to the South, which they had 
 never expressed, and did not entertain. I 
 relate these things here to show the situation 
 the awfully discouraging situation that 
 Mr. Lincoln faced in January, 1861. 
 
 Governor Yates was condemned for rec- 
 
 128 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 ommending a reorganization of the militia. 
 In the House a Democrat (Green of Mas- 
 sac) moved to amend the militia bill by pro 
 viding that the militia be armed with corn 
 stalks; and yet these people professed to be 
 in favor of the Union. Yes; but it was to 
 be only such a Union as would be satisfac 
 tory to the most radical of the slaveholders. 
 But even that sort of a Union these slave 
 holders would not then have accepted. They 
 disliked the Northern people. They were 
 more unlike the Northern people than they 
 were unlike the people of England. Their 
 manners were different from ours. Their 
 education had been different. Their dialect 
 was different. Slavery had made them aris 
 tocrats. They placed the laboring man on 
 a level with their negroes. They expected 
 to win without civil war. And they would 
 have won had they not fired a gun if they 
 had not attacked Fort Sumter. 
 
 -9 129 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 The Springfield convention, in response to 
 Democratic conventions which had been held 
 in Kentucky and Indiana, as a means of con 
 ciliating the South, recommended the calling 
 of a convention of all the States to amend the 
 constitution. The Missouri Republican, in 
 an editorial discussing this method of settling 
 the trouble, recommended that resort to se 
 cession as a remedy should be had only after 
 "all other means of reconciliation have been 
 exhausted." 
 
 In the midst of the gloom and portents of 
 the on-coming tragedy of civil war, Mr. Lin 
 coln showed a willingness to conciliate the 
 great Northern party which was so thought 
 lessly feeding the fires of secession. He was 
 willing to concede something in the way of 
 compromise which did not contemplate a 
 surrender of the principles of which he had 
 been the foremost advocate, and which he 
 
 130 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 deemed not to be inconsistent with the do 
 mestic institutions of the slaveholding States ; 
 for he was naturally a conservative man, and 
 always held that by virtue of the constitu 
 tion the slaveholder was entitled to have his 
 fugitive slaves returned to him. No com 
 promise could be framed that would stop 
 the agitation by those in the North who be 
 lieved that slavery was sinful. He, with 
 the great majority of the North, believed 
 slavery to be wrong, but they faithfully re 
 garded the constitutional obligation to pro 
 tect it in the slaveholding States. Nor could 
 any compromise prevent the operations of 
 the underground railroad, which but few, 
 comparatively, were engaged in conducting, 
 but in the operation of which everybody 
 would have taken part if secession had suc 
 ceeded. 
 
 Deeming it not unwise to make some re- 
 
 131 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 sponse to the sentiment which seemed to be 
 so extensively entertained, not only in Illi 
 nois, but throughout the North, in favor of 
 offering compromise, as expressed by the Illi 
 nois convention, even if no other effect should 
 be produced than to demonstrate the folly 
 of expecting that the South would enter 
 tain any proposition of compromise whatever, 
 Mr. Lincoln drafted a preamble and resolu 
 tions which he caused to be adopted by the 
 Illinois legislature, which were entered in the 
 House and Senate journals, as follows: 
 
 "Mr. Jarrot, from the Committee on Fed 
 eral Relations, to which was referred sundry 
 resolutions referring to the condition of the 
 Union, reported the same back with the fol 
 lowing preamble and resolutions: 
 
 "WHEREAS, Although the people of the 
 State of Illinois do not desire any change in 
 our Federal Constitution, yet as several of 
 our sister States have indicated that they 
 deem it necessary that some amendment 
 should be made thereto; and 
 
 132 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 "WHEREAS, In and by the Fifth Article 
 of the Constitution of the United States, pro 
 vision is made for proposing amendments to 
 that instrument, either by Congress or by a 
 convention; and 
 
 "WHEREAS, A desire has been expressed 
 in various parts of the United States for a 
 convention to propose amendments to the 
 Constitution; therefore, be it 
 
 "Resolved by the General Assembly of 
 the State of Illinois, That if application shall 
 be made to Congress by any of the States 
 deeming themselves aggrieved, to call a con 
 vention, in accordance with the constitu 
 tional provision aforesaid, to propose amend 
 ments to the Constitution of these United 
 States, that the Legislature of the State of 
 Illinois will and does hereby concur in mak 
 ing such application. 
 
 "Resolved, That until the people of these 
 United States shall otherwise direct, the 
 present Federal Union must be preserved as 
 it is, and the present Constitution and laws 
 must be administered as they are; and to 
 this end, in conformity to that Constitution 
 and the laws, the whole resources of the 
 State of Illinois are hereby pledged to the 
 Federal authorities. 
 
 133 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 "Resolved, That copies of the above pre 
 amble and resolutions be sent to each of the 
 Representatives and Senators in Congress 
 and to the Executives of the several 
 States."* 
 
 This important document has so far es 
 caped the historian, for at the time of its 
 passage it did not purport to come from 
 Lincoln. There is no record that he had 
 anything to do with it; nor was it publicly 
 given out that he wrote the resolutions. But 
 I know very well that he did write them. 
 It was not concealed from the Republican 
 members of the Legislature that he wrote 
 them. I was very well acquainted with 
 every Republican member, and I know that 
 no one of them claimed to be the author. I 
 do not remember who introduced them, nor, 
 
 *The preamble and resolutions were voted on separately and as a 
 whole and adopted by the House. (House Journal, pp. 301, 302, 
 303, 304, Feb 1.) Concurred in by Senate. (Senate Journal, p. 
 231, Feb. 2, 1861.) Concurrence reported back to House. (House 
 Journal, p. 534, Feb. 13, 1861.) Printed also in the public laws of 
 1861, P . 281. 
 
 134 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 indeed, that anyone did. I have the impres 
 sion, though indistinct after the lapse of 
 nearly fifty years, that no one did, but that 
 they were privately handed to Mr. Vital 
 Jarrot, chairman of the Committee on Fed 
 eral Relations, and by him reported to the 
 House. I sat near Mr. Jarrot during the 
 entire session and was on familiar, almost 
 intimate, terms with him. I think it was 
 from him that I received my impression as 
 to the authorship. Mr. Jarrot was a most 
 excellent, sensible gentleman and a true pa 
 triot. He was one of the not many Repub 
 lican members of the House who deemed it 
 important that some offer of compromise 
 should be made, though having but little 
 faith that any offer would be accepted by 
 the Southern people. He thought that it 
 should be offered for its effect on our politi 
 cal opponents, if no other benefit should 
 come of it. 
 
 135 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 It failed to effect anything, and it remained 
 for the firing on Sumter to disabuse the 
 minds of those who professed to be hopeful 
 that the South would yield to compromise. 
 The many thousands of Southern Illinois, 
 relied on by the Springfield orators to fight 
 in Springfield and in the streets of Chicago, 
 led by the brilliant and gallant Logan, ral 
 lied under the banner of the Union on the 
 bloody fields of the South. 
 
 I heard the last speech Senator Douglas 
 ever made. On the invitation of the House 
 of Representatives of Illinois, at the special 
 session in April, 1861, he made a strong 
 and patriotic appeal for a united effort in 
 resisting the attempt of the slave power to 
 destroy the Union. His towering ambition 
 to become President (from the much lower 
 moral plane on the subject of slavery than 
 ihat of Mr. Lincoln) had tumbled to ruin. 
 
 136 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 I have a vivid recollection of the appeal he 
 made on the one hand to the Republicans 
 to use with moderation, and in a spirit of 
 conciliation to their Democratic opponents, 
 the control they had come to have in the 
 affairs of the government; and on the other 
 hand, to his Democratic friends, "not to 
 allow their opposition to the Republican 
 party to turn them into traitors to their 
 country." This almost startling expression 
 aroused angry feeling in many Democratic 
 members, and it was suppressed in the print 
 ed speech, but I was sitting near him and I 
 know he said it. Poor man ! From Spring 
 field he went home to Chicago, soon to die 
 in the full prime of his great powers, for he 
 was only forty-eight years of age. Often, 
 often since I have thought of the solemn 
 words, "Death, death, death," he uttered as 
 he lay on his deathbed in the old Tremont 
 
 137 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 House in Chicago. Had he not died he 
 might have greatly distinguished himself on 
 the fields of war, and finally become Presi 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 People of a later generation can have no 
 adequate appreciation of the intense hostil 
 ity, and even hatred, with which Mr. Lin 
 coln was regarded by his political opponents. 
 We who lived then and were heartily with 
 him in his efforts to maintain the Union 
 could see, and did see, that many of them 
 exulted when they heard that he was killed. 
 They dared not much to show it, else 
 they themselves would have been killed. 
 Blinded by intense partisan spirit, and blind 
 to the fact that the slave power had long 
 been planning either to make it lawful to 
 carry their slaves into every quarter of the 
 Union or to dissolve the Union, they laid 
 the whole trouble at the door of those who 
 
 138 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 were simply resisting the further extension 
 of slavery. 
 
 The principal organ of these opponents 
 of Mr. Lincoln in Illinois was the Chicago 
 Daily Times, owned and edited by Wilbur 
 F. Storey. On the first day of July, 1 864, 
 it published an editorial out of which I cut 
 the following extract: 
 
 "We have no disposition to taunt Ken 
 tucky in her present condition, but if this 
 resolution is true (referring to a resolution 
 of the Democratic State Convention held 
 on the 28th of June) we must infer that her 
 people are not free. Democratic news 
 papers are not permitted to circulate in the 
 State, and she is deprived of the other 
 enumerated essentials of a free government. 
 She is not thus bound because her sons are 
 pigeon-livered and lack gall to make oppres 
 sion bitter, but she waits and hopes that 
 she may be unfettered without resorting to 
 force to re-establish law. She will not wait 
 many months, nor will the nation delay in 
 rising to her rescue if a fraudulent presi- 
 
 139 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 dential election should in form re-invest Mr. 
 Lincoln in his present office. He cannot be 
 fairly and lawfully elected, and the people 
 have determined that he shall not hold office 
 if elected by fraud. He could not be more 
 worthless dead than he is living, but he 
 would be infinitely less mischievous, and his 
 corpse, repulsive as it would be in its freshest 
 state and richest and most graceful habili 
 ments, would yet be the most appropriate 
 sacrifice which the insulted nation could offer 
 in atonement for its submission to his im 
 becility and despotism." 
 
 Who could doubt that that man Storey 
 and the patrons of his paper rejoiced in their 
 secret souls when their tool, John Wilkes 
 Booth, shot Lincoln down on the night of 
 April 14, 1865? When General Burnside 
 was in command of the department of Ohio, 
 he ordered the Chicago Times to be sup 
 pressed. Mr. Lincoln s "despotism" was 
 such that he countermanded the order! 
 
 140 
 
Recollections of 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 By MR. JOHN W. BUNN 
 
 of Springfield, Illinois, Related in a Correspond 
 ence with Isaac N. Phillips 
 
Recollections of 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 By MR. JOHN W. BUNN 
 
 of Springfield, Illinois, Related in a Correspond 
 ence with Isaac N. Phillips 
 
 LETTER OF MR. PHILLIPS 
 
 Bloomington, Illinois, October 25, 1910. 
 Mr. John W. Bunn, Springfield, 111. 
 
 My Dear Sir: You have often, in idle hours 
 related to me your recollections of Lincoln. I feel 
 that some of the things you have told me should 
 be preserved in a permanent form. I am just 
 now helping to get out a little book of recollections 
 of Lincoln by a number of men who knew him quite 
 well. I am sure no man now living had a nearer 
 view of Lincoln, in the period covered by the last 
 dozen years before his assumption of the presi 
 dency, than you had. I am further sure that no 
 man s recollections of Lincoln at that period are 
 clearer or more reliable than yours. You are not 
 a man who is disposed to state doubtful things 
 or to try to exaggerate your own knowledge of, or 
 143 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 associations with, Mr. Lincoln. Others have been 
 less modest. 
 
 Very few men are now living who knew Lincoln 
 well before the war certainly but few whose 
 recollections are to be depended upon. I am per 
 suaded that much is now related concerning Lincoln 
 that is of very doubtful authenticity. I therefore 
 feel I have some right to ask you to put in form 
 some of the things you have often told me in pri 
 vate conversation. I wish you to state what kind 
 of a man Lincoln was socially, and what kind of a 
 man he was as a politician, if he was a politician. 
 Please embody these recollections and estimates 
 in a letter to me, so I may preserve them in a per 
 manent form and give them publicity. Some errors 
 which have crept into the public mind may thus 
 be corrected, and you will have helped to give the 
 future a more correct view of the most interesting 
 if not the greatest, character of modern times. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Isaac N. Phillips. 
 
 144 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 LETTER OF MR. BUNN. 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Nov. 8, 1910. 
 Isaac N. Phillips, Esq., Bloomington, III. 
 
 My Dear Sir: Your request that I 
 should give you, in a letter, some of my per 
 sonal recollections of Mr. Lincoln and my 
 estimate of him, both in a social way and as 
 a politician, is before me. My answer shall 
 be made wholly from my personal knowl 
 edge and observation of the man. I shall, of 
 course, not try to exhaust the subject, but 
 will give you a little of Lincoln as I saw him 
 and as I knew him. If, in doing this, it 
 should appear that I put in a good deal about 
 myself, I must plead as an excuse that I 
 could not write my recollections of Lincoln 
 without, to some extent, writing about 
 myself. 
 
 I was born in Hunterdon county, New 
 Jersey, in the year 1 83 1 . I had a brother, 
 Jacob Bunn, who, in the year 1 840, settled 
 145 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 in Springfield, Illinois, carrying on there a 
 wholesale and retail grocery business. In 
 1847, when I was in my sixteenth year, I 
 came to live in Springfield in order to be 
 with my brother, and I have lived at Spring 
 field ever since. In 1847, when I came to 
 Illinois, Lincoln had lived and practiced law 
 at Springfield for ten years and had become 
 somewhat distinguished throughout the State. 
 In fact, he was then serving a term in con 
 gress from the district which included Sanga- 
 mon county, Illinois. My early contact with 
 Mr. Lincoln was brought about by the fact 
 that he was my brother s regular attorney. 
 Almost immediately after coming to Illinois 
 I began to know Lincoln in such a way as a 
 boy knows a prominent man whom he often 
 sees and talks with. 
 
 In the year 1853, I remember that Judge 
 Douglas made a great political speech in the 
 State House. Lincoln was present and 
 
 146 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 heard him, and gave notice that he would 
 answer Douglas, one evening very soon, 
 from the same platform. It was a way Lin 
 coln had to talk with people and find out the 
 views they took of current events, but he 
 seldom or never asked anybody s advice. 
 Accordingly, the next day after Douglas 
 had made his speech Lincoln came along and 
 stopped to talk with me upon the sidewalk in 
 front of my brother s store. He said to me, 
 "Did you hear the speech of Judge Douglas 
 last night?" I answered that I had heard 
 the speech, and he said, "What do you think 
 of it?" I replied, "Mr. Lincoln, I think it 
 was a very able speech, and you will have a 
 good deal of trouble to answer it." To this 
 he replied, "I will answer that speech with 
 out any trouble, because Judge Douglas 
 made two misstatements of fact, and upon 
 these two misstatements he built his whole 
 
 argument. I can show that his facts are not 
 147 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 facts, and that will refute his speech." I 
 was present and heard the reply which Mr. 
 Lincoln made to Judge Douglas* speech, 
 and to my mind he did disprove Douglas 
 facts, and, as I thought, completely answered 
 his arguments. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln was elected to con 
 gress in 1846, he was the only Whig con 
 gressman from Illinois. He served one term 
 in congress and was not a candidate to suc 
 ceed himself. After his return to private 
 life, he was recognized as the leader of the 
 Whig party in Illinois, just as Judge Doug 
 las was recognized as the leader of the 
 Democratic party in the State. These two 
 men were the spokesmen of their respective 
 parties, and no one disputed their supremacy. 
 Judge Douglas soon became the leader of 
 the Democrats of the whole North, if not of 
 the South. These two men were leaders 
 both in debate and in private council. 
 
 148 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 Although the Republican party first be 
 gan to take form in 1854, it was not fully 
 organized until the year 1856, when Fre 
 mont was its candidate for president. Lin 
 coln and Douglas, as leaders of their par 
 ties, were always rivals and political an 
 tagonists. Their greatest contest was when 
 they met as rival candidates for the Senate 
 in the great debate of 1858. Douglas was 
 successful and Lincoln was defeated, but 
 the apparent defeat of Lincoln in that can 
 vass was not a real defeat, for in that cele 
 brated debate he laid the foundations, broad 
 and deep, for his success over Douglas in the 
 great presidential campaign of 1 860. In the 
 latter campaign Lincoln carried Illinois 
 against his rival. 
 
 Lincoln was always a party man and was 
 careful to observe and to control, within the 
 sphere of his influence, every detail of party 
 
 organization. He was always in close touch 
 149 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 with the leaders of his party in the State. 
 The primaries in his own ward and city, the 
 county convention, and the State convention 
 were each and all matters of deep personal 
 concern to him. I do not mean that he 
 always engaged, personally, in all the de 
 tails of local campaigns, but the men who 
 did the work were generally in his confi 
 dence, and were men who were glad to act 
 upon his advice and suggestions. All these 
 things were matters which Mr. Lincoln not 
 only took pride in but enjoyed, just as any 
 man enjoys the things that he does well and 
 does with success. 
 
 These things, which I state as facts of my 
 own knowledge, certainly show that Lincoln 
 was a practical politician, but he was not 
 altogether like many other practical poli 
 ticians. He had his personal ambitions, but 
 he never told any man his deeper plans, and 
 
 few, if any, knew his inner thoughts. What 
 
 150 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 was strictly private and personal to himself, 
 he never confided to any man on earth. 
 When men have told of conversations with 
 Lincoln in which they represent him as giving 
 out either political or family affairs of a very 
 sacred and secret character, their tales may 
 be set down as false. Furthermore, Lincoln 
 was as shrewd and unerring a judge of 
 human nature as any man I have ever known. 
 He understood the men about him, and he 
 looked through and through them. If he had 
 been going to do a thing so improbable, so 
 contrary to his nature, as to reveal the se 
 crets of his inmost family life to any man 
 whatever, we may be sure his great knowl 
 edge of men would have enabled him to 
 select someone who could be trusted not to 
 betray his confidence to the world almost the 
 moment his eyes closed in death. 
 
 What I have said of Lincoln s disposition 
 
 to keep his own counsels does not in any way 
 151 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 contradict the commonly accepted notion 
 that he was a most genial man and that he 
 was easily approachable. He was in fact a 
 popular man with all who knew him and 
 was generally well liked, personally, not only 
 by his own supporters, but by the members of 
 the party opposed to him, or at least by those 
 members of the opposing party who were 
 sufficiently broadminded not to be very bitter 
 partisans. 
 
 As I have already indicated, Lincoln 
 never, to my knowledge, sought the advice 
 of his friends and associates as to what he 
 should do, even in matters of great impor 
 tance. However sincerely and confidently 
 Lincoln may have worked for the success of 
 his party, of which he was the acknowledged 
 leader, neither his own personal interests nor 
 the interests of his party ever, in my judg 
 ment, to any extent, controlled his political 
 
 opinions or his public utterances. Lincoln 
 
 152 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 may have kept many things to himself, and 
 in many matters it may be said he was secre 
 tive, but, whenever he did speak, he said 
 what he really thought. He never dealt in 
 double meanings or used language for the 
 purpose of concealing his opinions. 
 
 When, in the debate of 1 858, Lincoln ad 
 vanced some views, and said some things, 
 which aroused the protests of his political 
 associates, he was undisturbed by the criti 
 cisms that were made. It was subsequently 
 demonstrated that he saw further and more 
 clearly than those who accused him of ruin 
 ing his own prospects and making trouble for 
 his party. On this occasion, as on many 
 others, in his public life, he relied on his own 
 judgment, and his judgment proved to be 
 correct. 
 
 Lincoln s entire career proves that it is 
 quite possible for a man to be adroit and 
 
 skillful and effective in politics, without in 
 
 _io 153 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 any degree sacrificing moral principles. Lit 
 tle men try to do the same things he did, and 
 make very bad work of it. They lack the 
 high moral inspiration that animated Lin 
 coln. Lincoln presents the most remarkable 
 case in American history of a man who could 
 be a practical politician and at the same time 
 be a statesman in the highest sense of both 
 terms. Lincoln was a high-minded patriot. 
 He appreciated intellectual and educated 
 men, but he was at the same time a com 
 moner a man of the people. He never, 
 however, went out and told the people, in 
 terms, that he was one of them. They knew 
 this without any assertions of the fact. He 
 was always ready to give his best energies, 
 and finally did give his life to the service of 
 his country, but it is not true that he listened 
 to the popular clamor, in order to avoid po 
 litical storms, so far at least as they affected 
 
 his personal interests or his political pros- 
 
 154 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 pects. If what he said or did did not meet 
 with popular approval he had the patience 
 and the foresight to wait for the advance of 
 public opinion. He did not doubt his own 
 ability to see great situations and to solve 
 great political and moral questions, and he 
 always waited with perfect composure the 
 ultimate triumph of that truth and justice 
 which was his high and only aim. 
 
 Between 1850 and 186 1,1 saw Mr. Lin 
 coln very often. I am proud to say that I 
 was one of his junior political agents. Like 
 very many others, I was always glad to do 
 for him anything that I could do. I was 
 often present at political gatherings, held for 
 the purpose of consultation, and I thus came 
 to know pretty well the workings of his mind, 
 so far as they could be learned from close 
 personal contact and observation. I cer 
 tainly knew something about his personal 
 
 bearing and concerning the attitude of others 
 
 155 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 towards him. I never heard any man call 
 Mr. Lincoln "Abe," and he certainly was 
 never spoken of as "Abe" in his own pres 
 ence. It was not until the campaign of 1 860 
 that I began to hear the talk about "Abe" 
 Lincoln and "Honest Abe." His associates 
 always callled him "Mr. Lincoln." It may 
 be that sometimes men like Judge Logan, 
 John T. Stuart, Judge Davis or Leonard 
 Swett, called him simply "Lincoln." His 
 associates treated him with the respect that 
 was due to his position, and he always be 
 haved with dignity, so far as I observed. 
 Many fictions of a later day have grown up 
 about Mr. Lincoln. They are mostly exag 
 gerations indulged in by persons who delight 
 in telling a striking tale, and not infre 
 quently for the purpose of making the relator 
 seem important in his relations with Lincoln. 
 All representations of Mr. Lincoln as a 
 clown or a buffoon are false, and these 
 
 156 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 things, to the real friends of Lincoln men 
 who really knew him well are very offen 
 sive. I have always felt outraged by them. 
 
 I am also able to testify from knowledge 
 that Mr. Lincoln was not so slovenly in his 
 dress, and so ungainly in his appearance, as 
 many have represented him to be. He was 
 angular in his person, but he was agile in his 
 movements and far less awkward in his mo 
 tions than he has been represented to be. He 
 always seemed to me to be as neat in his per 
 son and clothing as the common run of 
 lawyers at the Western bar. 
 
 The impression has gone forth that Lin 
 coln was always greatly embarrassed in the 
 presence of ladies, and, indeed, that he sel 
 dom talked to ladies at all. Now, I have 
 repeatedly seen Mr. Lincoln in social gath 
 erings at Springfield, at the houses of promi 
 nent residents. At such places he was nearly 
 
 always surrounded by ladies, who took spe- 
 157 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 cial delight in talking to him. I did not ob 
 serve his great embarrassment. I know that 
 it may be said generally that he was as popu 
 lar among women as he was among men. 
 Women delighted to hear him talk, and he, 
 to my certain knowledge, could talk very in 
 terestingly to them. They used to gather 
 about him and make him talk. This was in 
 Springfield at his home, and all I say of 
 Lincoln is confined to the period before his 
 departure for Washington. 
 
 In the year 1857 Mr. Lincoln asked me 
 one day if I did not wish to run for city 
 treasurer of Springfield. The city was then 
 an almost hopelessly Democratic city, and 
 the proposition rather startled me. He, how 
 ever, gave me encouragement to believe that 
 I could be elected, if I would go about the 
 matter in the right way. My brother, Jacob 
 Bunn, who was present at the time, said to 
 Mr. Lincoln, "John will run if you want him 
 
 158 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 to." The candidate of the Democrats was 
 Mr. Charles Ridgely. I confess I was 
 pleased with the idea, and, when the Re 
 publican city convention met, I was an in 
 terested auditor of the proceedings. I ex 
 pected to hear my own virtues extolled in the 
 lofty way that was common in such conven 
 tions. Lincoln had told me nothing of his 
 plans as to how the announcement of my 
 candidacy would be made, or in what man 
 ner I would be brought out. The conven 
 tion was nearly over, and I began to think 
 the matter of my nomination had been for 
 gotten. In a city so Democratic as Spring 
 field, Republican nominations were regarded 
 at best as rather formal and perfunctory mat 
 ters. Near the close of the convention a 
 young man a lawyer who was an inmate 
 of Lincoln s office addressed the chairman, 
 and said he would like to make a nomination 
 
 for the office of city treasurer, but that if the 
 
 159 
 
LINCOLN By MEM 
 
 suggestion he should make did not meet with 
 the favor of every delegate present, he would 
 withdraw the name. He then put my name 
 in nomination, but again said, "If there is 
 any delegate on this floor opposed to the 
 candidacy of Mr. Bunn, I do not wish his 
 name to be voted upon or to go on the 
 ticket." No one objected and I was nomi 
 nated by acclamation. 
 
 When I saw who was nominating me and 
 knew that he was an inmate of Mr. Lincoln s 
 office, I, of course, knew very well that he 
 was acting under Mr. Lincoln s orders. The 
 result of the election was that I was chosen 
 for treasurer, and, I may say, I was again 
 chosen in 1858, in 1859 and in 1860. In 
 all these campaigns I was, so to speak, 
 "under the political wing" of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 A day or two after my first nomination 
 for city treasurer I was going up town and 
 saw Mr. Lincoln ahead of me. He waited 
 
 160 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 until I caught up and said to me, "How are 
 you running? * I told him I didn t know 
 how I was running. Then he said, "Have 
 you asked anybody to vote for you?" I 
 said I had not. "Well," said he, " if you 
 don t think enough of your success to ask 
 anybody to vote for you, it is probable they 
 will not do it, and that you will not be 
 elected." I said to him, "Shall I ask Demo 
 crats to vote for me?" He said, "Yes, ask 
 everybody to vote for you." Just then a 
 well known Democrat by the name of Rags- 
 dale was coming up the sidewalk. Lincoln 
 said, "Now, you drop back there and ask 
 Mr. Ragsdale to vote for you." I turned 
 and fell in with Mr. Ragsdale, told him of 
 my candidacy, and said I hoped he would 
 support me. To my astonishment, he prom 
 ised me that he would. Mr. Lincoln walked 
 slowly along and fell in with me again, and 
 
 said, "Well, what did Ragsdale say? Will 
 161 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 he vote for you?" I said, "Yes, he told me 
 he would." "Well, then," said Lincoln, 
 "you are sure of two votes at the election, 
 mine and Ragsdale s." This was my first 
 lesson in practical politics, and I received it 
 from a high source. 
 
 In the year 1861 , when it was about time 
 to nominate a treasurer again, I had a con 
 versation with Mr. Lincoln. He asked me if 
 I was going to run again for treasurer. I 
 said, "Mr. Lincoln, do you not think that 
 men frequently run for office too often for 
 their own good?" He replied, "Yes, they 
 very often do." I gathered from this that 
 he probably thought I had better not run 
 again, and so I dropped out of the race. 
 
 I may here relate a little incident which is 
 characteristic of Lincoln. During the time 
 between the election of Lincoln and his de 
 parture from Springfield to go to Washing 
 ton, he had his office in the old State House 
 
 162 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 a building which still stands on the public 
 square, though it has been repaired and a 
 good deal changed. I was, of course, very 
 greatly interested in the campaign in which 
 the Republicans had succeeded in electing 
 Lincoln. I was on a local committee which 
 had charge of matters in Springfield and 
 Sangamon county and was treasurer of the 
 committee. One day, after the election had 
 resulted successfully, I went up to Mr. Lin 
 coln s room in the State House, and as I 
 went up the stairs I met Salmon P. Chase 
 of Ohio just coming away. When I en 
 tered the room I said to Mr. Lincoln, rather 
 abruptly, "You don t want to put that man 
 in your cabinet." It was an impertinent re 
 mark on my part, but Mr. Lincoln received 
 it kindly and replied to me in a characteristic 
 way, by saying, "Why do you say that?" 
 "Because," I said, "he thinks he is a great 
 deal bigger than you are." "Well," said 
 
 163 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 Lincoln, "do you know of any other men 
 who think they are bigger than I am?" I 
 replied, "I do not know that I do, but why 
 do you ask me that?" "Because," said Mr. 
 Lincoln, "I want to put them all in my cabi 
 net." This is, perhaps, unimportant talL 
 but I think it shows a real characteristic of 
 Lincoln and shows that he was not afraid 
 to match himself against other men, however 
 prominent they might be. 
 
 I always had a deep admiration and rev 
 erence for Mr. Lincoln and, of course, was 
 very active, in my way, in forwarding his 
 candidacy in the campaign of 1 860. After 
 the campaign was over and had been suc 
 cessful, I was once in Lincoln s office in the 
 State House, when some question came up 
 about my having spent a great deal of time 
 in and about the canvass locally. Lincoln 
 asked me some questions which brought out 
 the fact that I had spent a good deal of my 
 
 164 
 
WHO KNEW H I M 
 
 own money in the canvass a thousand dol 
 lars, or more. Mr. Lincoln said to me that 
 I was not able to lose that money. He 
 spoke very seriously. I replied, "Yes, Mr. 
 Lincoln, I am able to lose it, because when 
 you go to Washington you are going to give 
 me an office." This statement seemed to 
 almost startle him. The look on his face 
 grew very serious. He said to me that he 
 had not promised me any office whatever. 
 I replied, "No, Mr. Lincoln, you have not 
 promised me anything, but you are going to 
 give me an office just the same." "What 
 office do you think I am going to give you?" 
 asked Mr. Lincoln. I said, "The office of 
 pension agent here in Illinois. During Isaac 
 B. Curran s term as pension agent under Bu 
 chanan I have done all the work in the 
 office, in order to get the deposits in my 
 brother s bank. The salary amounts to 
 
 $ 1 ,000 a year, and when you go to Wash- 
 165 
 
LINCOLN By MEN 
 
 ington you are going to give me that office." 
 To this he made no word of reply. He did 
 not say he would give me the office, or that 
 he would not, but on the 7th of March, 
 1 86 1 , I was appointed to the office of pen 
 sion agent of Illinois by Caleb B. Smith, 
 Secretary of the Interior. 
 
 I do not believe that anything on earth 
 could have extracted a promise from Mr. 
 Lincoln to give me that office, nor do I think 
 he would have bargained to give any man 
 an administrative office before or after his 
 election. It is probable that he had selected 
 the members of his cabinet, and that he had 
 advised them of the fact before they were 
 appointed, but, outside of his cabinet officers, 
 I do not believe he promised anybody an 
 office before the day of his inauguration, and 
 yet the incident I have above related shows 
 that he was not by any means insensible to 
 ordinary political considerations. 
 
 166 
 
WHO KNEW HIM 
 
 Lincoln was the leading lawyer in central 
 Illinois before his election to the presidency. 
 He was universally respected for his purity 
 and his uprightness and for the rigid integrity 
 that he never failed to exhibit in all the rela 
 tions of life. He received from all who came 
 in contact with him the high respect and con 
 sideration which was due to his position 
 and to his great ability and character. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JOHN W. BUNN. 
 
 167 
 
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