XV.

CASSIUS M. CLAY.

HILST I was a student in Transylvania

WH

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, a 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. 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

But,

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

society, was often a necessity in a pioneer country, to which all ranks were at times accustomed. The limits here imposed forbid my enlarging upon these incidents, but I will name a few. Traveling one day in his company, a storm blew some young birds from their nest, Lincoln dismounted from his horse in the rain, and tenderly replaced them. Once pleading a cause, the opposing lawyer had all the advantage of the law in the case; the weather was warm, and his opponent, as was admissible in frontier courts, pulled off his coat and vest as he grew warm in the argument. At that time shirts. with the button behind were unusual. Lincoln took in the situation at once, knowing the prejudices of a primitive people against pretension of all sorts, or any affectation of superior social rank. Arising, he said: "Gentlemen of the jury, having justice on my side, I don't think you will be at all influenced by the gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law, when you see he does not even know which side of his shirt should be in front." There was a general laugh, and Lincoln's case was won. Speed further said that as soon as Lincoln was elected President, he wrote to him to name any office he would like to have. But he wrote back that his business was better than any office the President could give him. However, afterward Lincoln made his brother, James Speed, Attorney-General. The old apothegm,

"If you want to know a man, travel with him or live with him," was intensified in Speed's case. His judgment, therefore, of Lincoln's character is of great value. He regarded him as humane, philanthropic, and eminently the most just man he ever knew, and that he well deserved of all men the name of "Honest Abe."

His debate with Stephen A. Douglas not only showed great ability, but a liberal tendency. And though Douglas was the first popular speaker of his day, Lincoln won on the convictions of the people; so that, although Douglas was chosen the Senator of Illinois, the debate, as taken down by stenographers, was published by the Whigs, and widely distributed as a campaign document. This brought Lincoln prominently before the nation as the liberal candidate. He was invited to speak in New York by the young Whigs and Liberals, and I met him again for the second time, and had on the cars a long talk with him on my favorite policy. Lincoln as usual was a good listener; and when I had accumulated all my arguments in favor of liberation he said: "Clay, I always thought that the man who made the corn should eat the corn." This homely illustration of his sentiments has lingered ever in my memory as one of the most eminent arguments against slavery. The famous Robert G. Breckinridge said: "The highest of all rights is the right of a man to him