and a court of equity was in reality "a court of conscience." He was not in the habit of citing a great number of authorities on any proposition, but depended chiefly upon the statement of the principles and the presentation of the reasons for the rule for which he contended, as well as for its application to the case before the court. His strong common sense and clear understanding of the principles of the common law enabled him to see clearly what the law ought to be, and with all the force of his great mind he endeavored with invincible logic to convince the court of the correctness of his contention. Or, if the case were one involving the principles of equity, his appeal was to the conscience of the court to right a wrong which had been committed, or to prevent an impending injury.

Like other high-class lawyers of his time, Mr. Lincoln tried on the circuit cases of every kind, both civil and criminal. His success in the defense of persons charged with crime seems to have been extraordinary, for while his contemporaries inform us that he defended many such cases, the records of the Supreme Court of Illinois reveal the astonishing fact that he never appeared in that court on behalf of any person charged with a felony. Had he been defeated in such cases in the trial court, in many instances, it is scarcely conceivable that some

of them would not have been taken by appeal or writ of error to the Supreme Court and that he would not have appeared as counsel in that court on behalf of the accused.

It has been said that Mr. Lincoln never knowingly defended a person charged with crime unless he believed the accused to be innocent. This may be true, and if so, it will account in some measure at least for the fact before stated. The only other explanation must lie in his great ability as an advocate, in that power to win before a jury, mentioned by Mr. Swett and others.

In his career at the bar Mr. Lincoln crossed swords in the arena of his profession with the greatest lawyers of his time. Among them were Orville H. Browning, who succeeded Stephen A. Douglas as United States Senator from Illinois; James A. McDougall, United States Senator from California during the Civil War; Edward D. Baker, a United States Senator from Oregon, who was subsequently killed at the battle of Ball's Bluff while a colonel of volunteers in the war between the states; Stephen T. Logan, at one time a circuit judge and for many years the leader of the bar of Central Illinois; Leonard Swett, who, through many years, ending only with his death, was one of the acknowledged leaders of the bar of the Northwest, if not of the nation;

Lyman Trumbull, at one time a justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois and who served as United States Senator from Illinois during the whole period of the Civil War and was recognized as one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in that assembly, which, during that period, numbered among its members probably the greatest aggregation of profound lawyers ever gathered together in one legislative body; J. T. Stuart, at one time a member of Congress, who was acknowledged by all who knew him to be a worthy opponent in any legal battle; Burton C. Cook, afterwards general counsel for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company; Isaac G. Wilson, a profound lawyer, who, upon the organization of the Illinois Appellate Court in 1877, became one of the judges of that intermediate court of appeal in civil and quasi-criminal cases, and who was for many years a judge of the Circuit Court; and many others whose names are impressed upon the jurisprudence of the State of Illinois, and with all of whom Mr. Lincoln held the most cordial relations.

Mr. Lincoln was also at one time one of the counsel for the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and in that capacity was recognized as a lawyer of no ordinary learning and ability. In a little volume issued by that company it is stated that Mr. Lin