The country was new, sparsely settled, the people hardy, fearless, honest, but spirited and litigious. The court houses were generally built of logs, sometimes framed and boarded up. With a raised desk, behind which sat the Judge; a small table for the clerk, and another larger table, sometimes covered with coarse green cloth, around which sat the bar. Rude chairs, or ruder benches, constituted the seats for the lawyers and jury. The court room was always crowded. Here were rehearsed and acted the dramas, the tragedy, and the comedy of real life; and the court house was always very attractive to the people of the back-woods. It supplied the place of a theatre and concert room, and other places of amusement of older settlements and cities; hence crowds always attended the courts, to see the Judges, and hear the lawyers "plead." A court room in the West, was ever a popular institution; the advocates had their partizans, political and personal, and the merits of each were canvassed in every cabin and school house, at every house raising, and bee, and horse-race in the county. The lawyers were stimulated to the utmost exertion of their powers, not alone, by controversy and contention for success, but by the consciousness that every effort was watched with the greatest eagerness by friends, rivals, and partizans. At this time the Judges, who composed the bench of Illinois, were very able men. Justice McLean, of the Supreme Court of the United States, was the circuit Judge, holding, personally, two terms of the United States Circuit Court at the Capital in Springfield. Judge Nathaniel Pope, father of Major General John Pope, was the district Judge. He was a man of great vigor of mind and independence of character. Although he had read a much smaller number of books than Judge McLean, such was the strength of his reasoning powers, that when the district and circuit Juges differed, as was very often the case, on any question of law, Pope was quite able to hold his own with his superior in rank.

On the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, among the most prominent men were William Wilson, Chief Justice, Samuel D. Lockwood, Thomas Ford, afterwards Governor, Sidney Bruce, afterwards Senator of the United States,

Stephen A. Douglas, and at a later day Lyman Trumbull, John Dean Caten, and others. There gathered at an early day, around the plain pine tables of the frontier court houses of Illinois, a very remarkable combination of men. Among them, and immediately a leader, was Stephen A. Douglas, who had been admitted to the bar in 1834, O. H. Browning, late Senator, admitted in 1835, Abraham Lincoln, Lyman Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a distinguished member of the Senate, admitted in 1837, Richard Yates, Governor and Senator, admitted in 1838, David Davis, now Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Besides these, there were E. D. Baker, the eloquent Senator from Oregon, and the martyr at Ball's Bluff; General John J. Hardin, who fell upon the bloody field of Buena Vista, Governor William H. Bissell, whose eloquent vindication of the bravery of the Illinois Volunteers in the Mexican war, against the aspersions of the traitor Davis, is still remembered in the traditions of great speeches in Congress; General James Shields, Justin Butterfield, Logan, Richardson, Washburn, Judd, and many others, prominent in the civil and military history of the country. It was among such men that Lincoln contended, at the bar and on the stump, and was trained for the high and solemn duties, which were before him. From 1840 to 1860, his name will be found, as often as any, in the judicial Reports of Illinois.

The circuit practice, as conducted in Illinois, was admirably adapted to educate, develope and bring out, all that a man had, of intellect and character. Few books could be obtained upon the circuit, and no large libraries for consultation, were to be had anywhere. A case lawyer was helpless in the hands of the intellectual giants which were produced by these Circuit Court contests, where questions must be argued and settled upon principle and analogy. A few elementary books were carried about in the saddle bags, along with the very scanty wardrobe of the attorney; such as Blackstone, Kent's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings and Starkie's Evidence. These were read and re-read, until the text was as familiar as the alphabet. By such aids as these afforded, and the application of principles, all the complex

questions which arose, were settled. No better school for intellectual training could be found anywhere. Lincoln rapidly rose to be among the first at the Illinois har. He continued his general studies, reading history and English literature, so far as the few books he could procure would enable him. He mastered Euclid, while traveling the circuit. As a lawyer, he had some very striking peculiarities. First, he thoroughly mastered every case. In his power of analysis and clearness of statement, he had no superior, if any equal. His love of truth, fairness and justice were never, to any extent, perverted by his profession; consequently, on the wrong side, he was weak, but on the right side, he was perfectly irresistible with court and jury. He was always popular with the bench, the bar, the jury and the spectators. His humor and power of illustration by apt comparison and story-telling, his power to ridicule by apt and ludicrous anecdotes were inexhaustible. "Riding the circuit" involved all sorts of personal adventures. Hard fare, at miserable country taverns, sleeping on the floor, and fording streams are among the common everyday incidents. In fording streams, the future President, was sometimes sent forward as a pioneer. His extremely long legs enabled him, by removing his pantaloons, boots and stockings, and taking his coat-tails under his arms, to ascertain without wetting his garments, where the streams offered the best fording places, and often to pilot the party, through streams, that, at first sight, seemed unfordable.

It was the habit of Mr. Lincoln, always in an important case, to make, mentally, an argument against his side of the case, and answer it.

His statement of his case as a lawyer, or as a stump speaker, was generally a demonstration. He had the power of divesting it of all extraneous circumstances, and stating simply and clearly exact issue, the precise turning point

in the discussion.

He was always so unassuming, so modest, and so respectful, and yet so dignified in the assertion of a right, that he disarmed opposition, and nobody, whose opinion had not already been formed, could listen to Lincoln long, without wishing his to be the winning side. Indeed he was a great

favorite on the circuit, and his arrival at court was always hailed with joy by bench and bar. His inexhaustible store of anecdotes, his good humor and kind feelings made him, always most welcome.

It was the universal practice of Mr. Lincoln to aid by his counsel and advice, the younger members of the bar, in the preparation and management of their cases. He never took a technical advantage, and would, if his opponent was young, or a stranger, point out to him formal errors in his pleading or practice. He wished to succeed only on the merits of his case. His manner of conducting jury trials was peculiar: he was familiar, frequently colloquial; often, at the summer term, taking off his coat, and leaning upon the rail of the jury box, he would single out a leading jury man and addressing him, in a conversational tone, would with the utmost candor and fairness, reason the case. When he perceived that he had secured the judgment of the one so addressed, he would then turn to another, and address him in the same manner, until he was satisfied the jury were with him. But at times, when thoroughly aroused by injustice, fraud, or falsehood, his denunciation was of crushing severity. There have been instances in which parties and witnesses, unable to withstand his exposure and invective, were driven from the court room.

He was very felicitous in his examination of witnesses. He generally kept them in good humor with himself, and his own love of humor and story-telling, led him sometimes, to ask a witness if he had ever heard a particular story; this was sure to be a story so apt in its illustration of the point he was making, that it furnished an argument which the jury did not forget.

A year or two before his marriage, Mr. Lincoln, was induced to accept a challenge to fight a duel with James Shields, since Senator and General.

Shields was at that time a young, hot-blooded, gallant Trish barrister, living at Springfield.

A practical joke had been played upon the gallant, and susceptible young Irishman, by some of the lively, and thoughtless young ladies of the city, and in allusion to it, a

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sarcastic, and witty poem appeared in the Sangamon Journal, then edited by Simeon Francis; Shields' hot blood was roused, and he went at once to Francis, and demanded the name of the author, otherwise he would hold Francis personally responsible. The poem was in fact written by a young lady. Francis was not willing to expose the young lady, and yet was without the courage to meet the fiery Irishman in the field. Remembering that Lincoln was a friend of this young lady, he in his dilemma, sought his advice.

Lincoln, at once, told Francis to say to Shields, that he might hold him responsible for the poem. Shields immediately challenged Lincoln, and he accepted the challenge, selecting broadswords as the weapons. The place of meeting was an island in the Mississippi. Arrangements for the meeting were completed, and the parties started to go to it, but through the influence of friends, the matter was arranged. Lincoln stated afterwards, that he selected broadswords, because his arms were long, and he believed, that without hurting Shields, he could protect himself.

In November, 1842, he married Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. With her he lived most happily, until he fell, covering her with his blood, when so fiendishly assassinated by Booth, the wretched instrument of the slaveholders. He was ever a devoted and most affectionate husband and father; and in all his domestic relations, indulgent, kind and loving.

At the July term of the Supreme Court, 1841, Mr. Lincoln brought before it a case involving a discussion of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwest territory, and the Constitution of Illinois prohibiting slavery within that State. Slaves were held by some of the French settlers in Illinois, at the time of the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, and the Constation of the State; but in violation of law.

A suit was brought and judgment rendered in the Circuit Court of Tazewell county, upon a note, given for a negro girl named "Nance." She was represented to have been an indentured slave or servant, and sold as such; the note was given.for her, and judgment rendered upon it. Mr. Lincoln