Executive Department.

Springfield.

February 5, 1909.

The celebrations which throughout the country are to mark the One Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Lincoln are an expression of the esteem and affection in which his name and character are universally held by the American people.

In this memorial occasion, the people of Illinois have a special and peculiar interest. Here Lincoln passed his mature years and here he began that marvelous public career which has earned the admiration of his countrymen and the world.

It is gratifying, therefore, to witness the extensive preparations which are being made by the citizens of Illinois to observe this great day in a manner worthy of its significance in the history of our State and country and of the movement for liberty throughout the world. And I urge the citizens of Illinois to participate in these celebrations in their various communities. In Lincoln's life every citizen may find an incentive to patriotism and the earnestness with which we join in this tribute to his memory will attest the measure of our devotion to the great principles of liberty and nationality with which his name will be forever associated.

el. Koneen

Governor.

Facsimile of Governor Deneen's Proclamation

and carried his goods and chattels in a pair of saddle-bags. Lincoln remained in partnership with Major Stuart, with whom he had served in the Black Hawk War, until 1841, during the most of which time Mr. Stuart was in Congress and Mr. Lincoln in the State Legislature, and he made but little progress in a financial or professional way during that period. He, however, had during that time a number of cases of some importance in the Circuit Court and a few in this Court. The first case he had in this Court was at the December term, 1840, and was that of Scammon v. Cline, 2 Scam. 456, in which he was defeated. That case involved a question of practice in taking an appeal from a Justice of the Peace in the Circuit Court, and established no principle of any importance. At the July term, 1841, however, he did have in this Court a most important case, the decision of which was far-reaching in its results; and the manner in which he handled it, showed that the future held in store for him a great professional career. It was brought in the Tazewell County Circuit Court by the administrators of Nathan Cromwell against David Bailey, upon a promissory note made to Cromwell in his lifetime for the purchase of a negro girl named Nance, sold by Cromwell to Bailey. The plaintiff was represented by Judge Stephen T. Logan, who at the time of the War was at the zenith of his professional career as a lawyer. Judgment was rendered upon the note by Judge William Thomas, who presided at the trial, in favor of the plaintiff for four hundred thirty-one dollars, ninety-seven cents. The defendant prosecuted an appeal to this Court, where it was contended the note was without consideration and void, as it was given as the purchase price of a human being, who, the evidence showed, as it was claimed, was free and therefore not the subject of sale This Court reversed the trial Court, the opinion being written by Judge Breese (3 Scam. 71), who held, contrary to the established rule in many of the Southern States, that the presumption in Illinois was that a negro was free and not the subject of sale. Under the old rule the burden was upon the negro to establish that he was free, as the presumption obtained that a black man was a slave; under

the new rule established by the opinion of Judge Breese the presumption obtained that a black man in this State was free, and a person who asserted he was a slave was required to bring forward his proof, which often it was impossible to do.

It was a fortunate circumstance in the life of Lincoln that in 1841 he allied himself with Judge Logan. The judge, like Lincoln, was from Kentucky and was a very great lawyer; not only a great lawyer, but a good lawyer-one thoroughly grounded in all the principles and technicalities of the common law, which at that time Lincoln was not, and during the next four years, and throughout his association with Judge Logan, Lincoln grew as a lawyer very rapidly. At that period there lived in Illinois a great number of very able lawyersLogan, Stuart, Baker, Douglas, Trumbull, Davis, Treat, Breese, Hardin, Shields, Linder, Manney, Purple, Knox, and others many of whom would have graced the bar of any court, even that of the Supreme Court at Washington or the courts at Westminster, in England, and a number of whom subsequently attained high distinction upon the bench or in other walks of public life. The United States Courts and the State Supreme Court of Illinois were then held in Springfield. Lincoln was immediately thrown into contact and competition with those great men, and his contemporaries all attest the fact that at the time he was elected to Congress from the Springfield district, in the Fall of 1846, he was the peer, as a lawyer, of any of them. Upon the dissolution of the firm of Logan and Lincoln, the firm of Lincoln and Herndon was formed, which lasted until Lincoln was elected President.

Lincoln was, during the time that he was in partnership with Judge Logan, and up to the time this ambition was satisfied, anxious to go to Congress. There were then living in that district, also, J. J. Hardin, E. D. Baker, and Judge Logan, all of whom had the same ambition, and it has been charged, but perhaps without foundation, that the "Big Four," as these men were called, formed a coalition, whereby Hardin, Baker, Lincoln, and Logan were each to have a term in Congress in the order in which they are named. Hardin,

Baker, and Lincoln each served a term in Congress, and Logan received the nomination, but was defeated at the polls.

There is another strange coincidence with three of those great men. Hardin fell at Buena Vista while leading his men in a charge during the Mexican War; Baker fell while leading his men at Ball's Bluff, during the War of the Rebellion; and Lincoln, just at the close of the War, lost his life at the hands of an assassin.

Lincoln was not a candidate for reëlection to Congress, and upon his return to Springfield, in 1849, he resumed the practice of the law; and, it may be said, for the next eleven years he devoted all his energy to his profession, and his development during that period was such that when he stepped from his law office in Springfield into the executive office at Washington, no man since the time of Washington was more thoroughly equipped and prepared to fill wisely that exalted position than was he.

During that eleven years preceding the election of Lincoln as President, he not only rode the old Eighth Judicial Circuit, but he had a large practice in this Court and in the United States Circuit and District Courts of Illinois, and was often called to represent large interests in foreign States. During the twenty-three years that Lincoln practised law he had one hundred and seventy-three cases in this Court-a most remarkable record-and I have found two cases (and perhaps there are others) which he had during that period in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Lincoln was a great jury lawyer, as is attested by his efforts in the Armstrong case and the Harrison case-both murder cases and in many other cases. He was also equally strong with the Court. For many years he represented some of the great corporations of the State, such as the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, and when he became a candidate for President, the lawyers of the State, recognizing his eminent ability, almost to a man gave him their earnest and warm support, and his nomination was largely secured through the influence of Judge David Davis, Gen. John M. Palmer,