him?" that you were the homeliest man in Abe's nominated. "Well, well," said Lincoln with a laugh, "Do you find the declaration verified?" "I've seen uglier men," Mr. Harman replied, "but I must confess that I would never pick you out for a handsome man." Then he added: "But what I came in here for, Mr. Lincoln, was to tell you that the National Republican Convention of next year will most certainly nominate you as its candidate for President of the United States." "Do yon think so?" "I do." "Well, I cannot but feel that you are too sanguine." "I am not, and I will tell you why. Business has called me all over the West. I have been among the people, have noted how they feel, and have heard what they say, and I tell you nothing but the power of God Almighty can prevent it." Mr. Lincoln's whole appearance showed that he was deeply moved, his voice trembled, and all he could say was: "Do you think so? really think so?" Do you "No." Have you seen Soon after Mr. Harman went over to the old State House, transformed into a Court House, where Lincoln sat upon a horsehair sofa in conversation with a friend. He saw Mr. Harman when a hundred feet away, and jumping up, ran over to him, grasped him by both hands which he shook vigorously, and said: "My friend, I remember you like a book! You are the man who predicted my nomination and election." "Yes, and one-half of my prediction has come true, and the other half will also." Do you think so? Come in and sit down, I want to talk to you. Here is a letter I have just received from a man in Jackson, Mississippi. Read it over while I conclude my conversation with this gentleman." Mr. Harman read the letter. It contained a number of questions as to Lincoln's beliefs and attitude upon public questions, ending with something like this: "Are you in favor of bringing our country back once more to what it was in the days of the fathers? If so, thou art the man!" "I would like to answer that letter," said Mr. Lincoln later, "but the committee won't let me. They won't let me write a letter to any one." Mr. Harman was in Springfield for some time and saw Lincoln almost every day. His respect and admiration increased with time, and when the President showed his great qualities and marvelous sagacity in the troubled years that followed, there was no surprise on the part of his New York friend, who had learned the man as he was and understood something of the power that was within him. "The last time I saw him," said Mr. Harman, as he related the above incidents to a little group of friends in the rooms of the Ohio Society of New York, "was in the course of that visit to Springfield. He came down town one evening dressed in white linen pantaloons and low shoes, with a wide margin between the bottoms. of the one and the tops of the other; but he cared as little for appearances then as he did for politics, for his whole heart was wrapped up in his boy, who was dangerously ill with scarlet fever. He got the medicine he came after, and went home. The next time I saw him he was lying in his coffin in the City Hall of New York-his destiny fulfilled, the war over, the Union saved, the slave a free man, and the name of Abraham Lincoln immortal." HON. DECIUS S. WADE, A CHIEF JUSTICE OF MONTANA. WHEN President Grant, in 1871, was looking about for the man who was best able to fill all the requirements for the high position of ChiefJustice of Montana, he turned his eyes to Ohio, and made his choice in the person of one who had filled many places of responsibility with honor to himself and with satisfaction to others; and when he announced Judge Decius S. Wade as his choice, the appointment was recognized as one of the best that had been made anywhere in the West. The new official was not only trained in the law, but was a man of the highest character, and a member of a family that had already furnished many sons who had been an honor to the State. The appointment was made on March 17th, 1871, and until May, 1887, Judge Wade filled the high office in a manner that not only linked his name with the history of jurisprudence in the West, but made him one of the founders of law in Montana. During these sixteen years of labor, he was an indefatigable worker, and a close student of law. His opinions fill more than one half of the first six volumes of the Montana Supreme. Court Reports, and very few of his rulings were ever overruled by the Supreme Court of the United States. It may be truthfully said that his decisions had much to do with perfecting the practice of law in the courts of Montana, and of making a symmetrical code of laws. With such able associates as Judge Hiram Knowles, now Judge of the United States District Court of Montana, and Hon. Henry N. Blake, Chief Justice of the State, who for a long time. served with him on the bench, it is but natural that few errors of opinion should be made. Their decisions are everywhere recognized as among the soundest and ablest in the whole country. That Judge Wade should achieve distinction, and that he should possess qualities of mind and ofcharacter of the highest order, is but what would be expected in one of his lineage, and the descendant of a family that long since made a mark in American history. He came of that parent stock that gave Benjamin F. Wade to the service of his country, at a time when men of his courage and principles were in demand. Hardly anything better can be said of any man's heritage of blood, than that he was "one of the Wades of Ohio." He was born at Andover, Ashtabula county, Ohio, on January 23d, 1835, the son of Charles H. Wade and Juliet Spear, both natives of Massachusetts; and many of the name are met in the early history of that State. "Ancient Medford," says Hon. A. G. Riddle, in his "Life of Benjamin F. Wade," "five or six miles to the He northwest of more ancient Boston, at the head of navigation of the small Mystic river, was the Massachusetts seat of the Wades. Thither came Jonathan Wade, from county of Norfolk, England, in 1634. He seems for a time to have been at Ipswich, where he was a freeman in 1634. receives much and honorable mention in the history of Medford. At what time he transferred himself to the latter place, does not appear, probably some years later; for we find him buying four hundred acres of land on the south side of the river, near Medford Bridge, October 2d, 1656. He is spoken of as Major Wade, a man of worship, who paid the largest tax of any man in Medford. He gave the town a landing, about 1680, one of several which Medford had." The descendants of this early man of colonial affairs, are found all through New England's stirring history, but space will allow no extended mention as to them. Of them was James Wade, the father of Senator Wade, and grandfather of Judge D. S. Wade. He removed to Ohio, and built a home in the wilderness, in 1821; but he had already shown his love of country, by fighting for its cause at Bunker Hill, and all through the Revolutionary war. Decius Wade was the son of a farmer, and his early years were spent in three months of school, and nine of labor, like the boys all about him. But he made the maximum use of |