WHILST

XV.

CASSIUS M. CLAY.

I was a student in Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, the main building, including the dormitory, was burned down, and I sought lodgings with Robert Todd and wife, where I became acquainted with Miss Mary Todd. Her elder sister married Ninian Edwards, of Illinois, where Miss Todd followed and married Abraham Lincoln. I was on very agreeable terms with the Todd family, who were always my avowed friends during my antislavery career. So when I went to speak in the Fremont campaign at Springfield, Illinois, in 1856, Abraham Lincoln and his law partner, O. S. Browning, called upon me. As I was speaking every day, I had but little time for social intercourse. The feeling against the liberal movement was as violent then in the free as in the slave States. Lovejoy had been killed not long before at Alton, and the State House was refused me. But, as the weather was pleasant, I spoke, in the grove which was about it, to an immense audience, for more than two hours. Lincoln and Browning lay

upon the ground, whittling sticks, and heard me, throughout, with marked attention. Hurrying on to my appointments, I saw him then no more. I never shall forget his long, ungainly person, and plain, but even then sad and thoughtful features. He was but little known to the world, but his being the husband of my old friend of earlier days caused me to look with interest upon him. I flatter myself that I sowed good seed in good ground, which, in the providence of God, produced in time good fruit.

Joshua and James Speed, now famous for their associations with Lincoln, Kentuckians and natives of Jefferson County, Kentucky, were my schoolmates, and relatives of John Speed Smith, who married my eldest sister Eliza. A few years ago Joshua was invited to deliver a lecture at Berea College, in my county, upon Lincoln. This college, of which I and John G. Fee were the founders, is about fourteen miles from Richmond by the old buggy road. I heard Speed's lecture with great interest, and taking him in my carriage, drove him to my sister Smith's residence, about twelve miles north-east from Berea. On the route we naturally talked much of Lincoln, of which conversation I will give some account.

Joshua Speed, the son of a wealthy farmer, quit Kentucky and set up a miscellaneous store in the capital of Illinois, then a mere backwoods village. One day an awkward green stranger of great stature

and as much diffidence entered his store, and asked Speed if he could fit him out with bedding and a few other named articles. Speed said "Yes;" when Lincoln went around and examined each article carefully, making a memorandum with Speed of the same. When his list was completed, he asked for the whole sum of the bill, which was about thirty dollars. Upon that, Lincoln, looking grave, said: "As this is more than I expected, I have not so much money, and am sorry to have put you to so much trouble." Speed then asked him his name and business, when Lincoln said that he was just commencing the practice of the law in Springfield, and wanted to fit up a small office and sleeping-room. Speed then told him that he would credit him for the amount. This Lincoln steadily refused, and was about to depart, when Speed said: "Mr. Lincoln, since you refuse a credit, and as I am an unmarried man, and have a double bed up-stairs, I will be glad to share it with you till you can make more agreeable arrangements." To this Lincoln did not at once accede, but went up-stairs and examined the bed, no doubt to see whether it was large enough without annoying his host, and cordially accepted his generosity. For many years he continued to sleep with Speed, which gave him an eminent opportunity to study Lincoln's character. This rude style of living, unknown in more wealthy and refined