things in a biography - I venture to think that Mr. Herndon's work will never be surpassed.

IV

While engaged in preparing the biography without whose aid it would never have been written - Mr. Weik came to know Mr. Herndon intimately and to admire him for his sturdy hon esty, his lofty motives and his passion for truth. Writing of Mr. Herndon as he knew him, Mr. Weik gives the following discriminating estimate of the man, noting at once his strength and his obvious limitations.

My acquaintance with Mr. Herndon began soon after my graduation from college in the seventies. I had gone to Springfield to study Lincoln and met Herndon for the first time in the dingy room which he and his partner had occupied for an office. From this time forward I was destined to share, to the end of his days, the confidence and close association of this rare man and generous friend; and shall never cease to be thankful for the affinity that grew up between us. From Herndon I learned how to measure Lincoln, to dissect his moral structure and analyze his mental processes. No other man ever lived who knew as much about the immortal Railsplitter, who comprehended him so thoroughly, who had dug so deep and laid bare the springs of action, the motives that animated his "clear head, brave heart, and strong right arm." With implicit and almost fanatical devotion Herndon clung to Lincoln, and we do not have to go far to find evidence that the latter, throughout all the memorable and tempestuous times that made him great, bared his heart and soul to "Billy" Herndon with all the candor and confidence of a brother.

His unvarying and inflexible devotion to the truth was the predominating trait in the character of William H. Herndon. In this respect he resembled his illustrious companion. Both men, up to a certain point, were very much alike. But there was a difference. Lincoln, deeply cautious and restrained, was prone to abstract and thoughtful calculation. Herndon, by nature forceful and alert, was quick, impulsive and often precipitate. If he detected wrong he proclaimed the fact instantly and everywhere, never piling up his wrath and strength as Lincoln did for a future sweeping and crushing blow. He never stopped to calculate the force,

momentum or effect of his opposition, but fought at the drop of a hat, and fought incessantly, pushing blindly through the smoke of battle until he was either hopelessly overcome or stood on the hill-top of victory. Younger than Lincoln, he was more venturesome, more versatile, and magnificently oblivious of consequences. Conscious of his limitations he knew that he was too bold, too extreme to achieve success in politics, and he therefore sunk himself in the fortunes of his more happily poised partner. . . . When, in the days yet to come, the searchlight of truth is turned on the picture, posterity will be sure to accept the verdict of Herndon's friends, that he was a noble, broadminded, honest man; incapable of a mean or selfish act, brave and big-hearted; tolerant, forgiving, just, and as true to Lincoln as the needle to the pole.1

During the last year of his life, while preparing the second edition of his biography of Lincoln, Mr. Herndon wrote frequent letters to Mr. Horace White, who was assisting him. By the kindness of Mr. White those letters are now before me, and they are interesting as so many glimpses of the writer in his last phase, as well as for a number of valuable and curious bibliographical facts which they reveal. Again and again he refers to the crusade for tariff reform then going on, and other movements of contemporary politics in which he was deeply interested, but these matters may be omitted. Only excerpts need be given:

April, 1890: In reply let me say that I never wrote a page, paragraph, sentence, or word for Lamon's Life of Lincoln, and never suggested to him any course or method to be pursued in his book. I sold to Lamon for $2,000 a copy of my manuscripts of the Lincoln records, facts which I had gathered up in 1870-1. Lamon used my name, I suppose, to give his book some popularity. If what facts and opinions he got from me were stricken out of his book there would not be much left of it, as I think. The reason why Lamon did not finish the second volume was because of a threecornered fight. Lamon and Black had a quarrel about the book, and they had a quarrel with their publishers. Lastly, Holland's review of the book, which was a mean thing, 1 Mss., prepared by Mr. Weik, July 4th, 1910.

squelched things completely. Black lost his money and his time through the muss.

You refer me to Lamon, page 396, and ask if the paragraph is true or false. It is in all things substantially correct. In speaking of Douglas and the Charleston convention, and the divided state of the Democracy in 1859-60, Lincoln often said to me, and to others in my presence, substantially this: "The end is not yet, but another explosion must come in the near future. Douglas is a great man in his way and has quite unlimited power over the great mass of his party, especially in the North. If he goes to the Charleston convention, which he will do, he, in a spirit of revenge, will split the convention wide open and give it the devil; and right here is our future success, or rather the glad hope of it." By the way, Lincoln prayed for this state of affairs: he saw in it opportunity and wisely played his line. He studied the trend of political affairs, drew conclusions as to general results, and calmly bided his time. Lincoln was the great American thinker and the unknown at least to the mass of men. He felt that Douglas was the strong man and that he must be put out of the way, politically. He did not fear any man in the South. He was after Douglas, always scheming and planning.

May, 1890: You regret, as well as myself, that I sold my Mss. to Lamon. The reason why I did so was that I was then, in 1870-72, a poor devil and had to sell to live. From 1853 to 1865 I spent all my time and money for the "nigger," or rather for Liberty and the Union -lost my practice, went to farming, and went under in the crash of 18713, and that, too, from no speculations-vices, etc. Today I have to work for tomorrow's bread, and yet I am a happy and contented man. I own a little farm of 65 acres and raise fruits for a living. Now you have the reasons for my

acts.

In reference to Lamon's book I can say truthfully that Chauncy F. Black, son of J. S. Black, wrote quite every word of it. I infer this much from Black himself. He used to write to me about it. The publishers struck out of it a whole chapter, or nearly so. The chapter, as I understand it, was on Buchanan's Administration, or rather the last year of it. I think that act, among others, created the split. I have for years been written to by various persons to know why Lamon was so much prejudiced against Lincoln. The bitterness, if any, was not in Lamon so much as

in Black, though I am convinced that Lamon was no solid, firm friend of Lincoln, especially during Lincoln's Administration, or the latter end of it.

Meanwhile he had received and read, with great delight, the chapter on the Lincoln-Douglas debates which Horace White wrote for the forthcoming edition of the biography. With a sure stroke he put his pen upon the excellent qualities of that essay, which is by far the best account ever written of that great campaign. What he liked best was its simple, unadorned style:

Friend, it is a fine piece and let me thank you a thousand times for it. I am glad that you followed the late historical methods. I like your treatment of Douglas. The fact is I once despised the man for his want of morals, but I have forgotten all this and only remember his good points, his energy and his genius. Your piece will be the best chapter in the life of Lincoln. I am glad that it is just what it is: it is exhaustive of the subject. You might have hammered it out and made it thinner and weaker, but no poetry, no adjectives, no superlatives would have done it any good. In your own opinion you did not reach your ideal, but that is natural. Our ideals are just an inch beyond our reach.

You hit Arnold a good lick: he was a credulous man without any critical ability at all; his book contains many errors, but it did not become me to say one word against Arnold's book. I helped him a good deal in his Life of Lincoln. Mr. Arnold is correct, however, when he states that Lincoln said, "I am fighting for bigger game." Lincoln made use of the expression. He was a shrewd, sagacious, cunning, farseeing man, and he purposely politically killed Douglas. I can see Lincoln now setting his stakes for that end.

Yes, Lamon's book was a great failure. The materials of it richly deserve a better fate. I hope you will have a good time on your recreation spree. I wish I could trip it with you. White, are you getting rich? I am as poor as Job's turkey.

October, 1890: My ears are always open to my friends,

1 Mr. Herndon was not alone in his criticism of Mr. Arnold's Life of Lincoln, which, though an admirable book, slurred over the facts about Lincoln's youth. - Life of Lincoln, by J. T. Morse, p. 9 (1896). But Mr. Arnold was one of the few biographers of Lincoln who was just to Mr. Douglas, perhaps because they were old friends.