ance upon the courts during the early years of his professional career, he listened to the arguments of others learned in the law, and the crumbs of knowledge gleaned in this way found lodgment in his fertile mind and doubtless instilled in him early in his professional career a determination to press forward until he should attain such high professional standing as would receive general recognition. He knew that only by arduous labor could he hope to succeed in his profession, and his remarkable success at the bar affords ample evidence that he never abated his efforts to acquire by unremitting toil the mastery of every branch of jurisprudence.

In a letter written by him to J. M. Brockman, Mr. Lincoln said, in reply to an inquiry as to the best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law, "The mode is very simple, though laborious and tedious. It is only to get the books and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's 'Commentaries,' and after reading it through, say twice, take up Chitty's 'Pleadings,' Greenleaf's 'Evidence,' and Story's 'Equity,' etc. Work, work, work is the main thing." It was by this method that Mr. Lincoln himself became one of the leaders of the Illinois bar, for such indeed he was at the time of his election to the presidency, as the record which he has left, together with the testimony of the distinguished

men who were his intimate associates during his professional career, clearly proves. In all which constitutes the really great lawyer, he stood in the front rank of the profession at a time when many men of renown battled for supremacy at the bar of Illinois; and he, who, by common consent, was classed as the equal of the other distinguished lawyers named in these pages, must be given high place among the lawyers of his generation.

A review of Mr. Lincoln's cases in the Supreme Court of Illinois alone will convince any one that he was one of the ablest lawyers of his time, and at the time of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise he had made such progress in his professional career that had he not then laid aside his professional labors there is no reason to doubt that he would have become known throughout the country as a profound lawyer as well as a great advocate. But when his country demanded his services in that trying hour; when he saw the determination of the supporters of slavery to spread that institution over the free soil of the nation, he left to others the pursuit of the calling of his choice, at a time when that calling seemed more than ever inviting, and when greater professional renown was easily within his grasp, to become more than ever before the champion of human freedom. Before the end of his life this lawyer of Illinois

became the emancipator of a race and the great restorer of the union of the states.

The work of Abraham Lincoln, the lawyer, and the record which he made by years of devotion to his profession were, in consequence of his unselfish devotion to the cause of the Republic which he loved, soon forgotten because overshadowed by the greater labors and accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln, the profound statesman and the savior of his country.

Had he lived to witness the realization of that vision which he saw and so beautifully expressed in his first inaugural address when "The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land" should "swell the chorus of the Union," it is believed that he would have proved himself the greatest constitutional lawyer of the nineteenth century, and many of the mistakes and horrors of the Reconstruction period would have been unknown to our country's history. He would have proceeded "with malice toward none, with charity for all" to "bind up the nation's wounds," and by constitutional government many of the conflicts which have left a blot upon the escutcheon of our national honor would have been avoided, and as a result jewels of still greater brilliancy would have decked the brow of this greatest ruler of modern

times, if not the wisest ruler of any age, for no one ever wielded the scepter of arbitrary power with greater moderation than did he. No chief executive of any nation ever manifested a greater reverence for the constitution and laws of his country or revealed so completely by every official word and act a firm belief in the great political truth that the Republic over whose destinies he was called upon to preside was intended to be and should be in fact, so far as he could make it such, "a government of laws and not of men" and dedicated to that exalted ideal, “Liberty regulated by law."

A list of all the cases with which Mr. Lincoln was connected in the Supreme Court of Illinois and the Supreme Court of the United States, including a short summary of each case, will be found in Appendix A. The last case in which he appeared in the state court was the State of Illinois vs. The Illinois Central Railroad Company, in which the State sought to recover certain taxes claimed to be due from the company. The amount involved was in excess of one hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars. The docket of the Supreme Court shows that this case was argued orally by Stephen T. Logan on behalf of the State and by J. M. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln on behalf of the railroad company on January 12, 1860, and that at the conclusion of the arguments

the court took the case under advisement. The court was then composed of a chief justice (John D. Caton) and two associates judges (Sidney Breese and Pinkney H. Walker). The decision was not rendered until the November term, 1861.

Mr. Lincoln was engaged in some cases in the courts of first instance after the argument of the case above mentioned. He tried at least one case of importance in the United States Circuit Court at Chicago shortly before his nomination to the presidency. His career at the bar practically closed when he received that nomination, but the skill in diplomacy and habits of thought and action acquired by him in the study and practice of his profession were continually manifest as he was called upon to decide the greater issues which involved the life of the Republic.

Much has been written about Mr. Lincoln's connection with the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the suit which he brought against that company to recover his fees for services in the case of McLean County against it. The contention of the officers of that company has always been that the suit by Mr. Lincoln was in every respect friendly and that there was no real contest over the matter, while others have sought to make it appear that these same officers sought to belittle the services rendered by Mr.