this address. It was both sympathetic and constructive in what it proposed. It contains passages prefiguring a simple yet lofty style. The theme of the address was temperance, but the occasion was the anniversary of Washington's natal day. Lincoln closed his address with a reverent, well-spoken tribute to the memory of Washington-a tribute only slightly marred by its stilted, over-rhetorical language.

Lincoln's eulogy on Henry Clay in 1852 surpasses in style and literary merit anything he wrote in the intervening decade. As a composition it is in some respects admirable. The language is frank, well chosen, and interpretative. The address is well planned and well proportioned; the thought is not extravagant in any sense, but fairly represents the eloquence, the ideals, and personality of Clay. His service and character as a statesman are appraised, and Lincoln's understanding of these squared with his own views of the Union, of slavery, and of the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln's writing during the ten years between the Temperance address and this eulogy include his speeches in Congress. He introduced the socalled "Spot Resolutions" in the House calling upon President Polk for specific information con

cerning the beginning of the Mexican War and throwing upon him the burden of an ethical justification of that war. He addressed the House in an arraignment of the President for his war policy, which Lincoln regarded as indefensible. He supported a national policy of internal improvements in a speech which, like the speech and resolutions on the Mexican question, revealed breadth of legal knowledge and historical research. He delivered also a party speech in support of Zachary Taylor for President which was not above the average performance of this character at the time.

There was nothing notable in these addresses. His congressional experience Lincoln seems to have regarded as a sort of obiter dictum in his professional life and in no sense an introduction to a political career. "It afforded him a close inspection of the complex machinery of the Federal government and its relation to that of the States," as Mr. John G. Nicolay wrote, and “it broadened immensely the horizon of his observation, and the sharp personal rivalries he noted at the center of the nation opened to him new lessons in the study of human nature. He attracted in Congress the interest of Alexander H. Stephens, who said of him: "Mr. Lincoln was

I Nicolay, "Abraham Lincoln," pp. 89, 90.

"1

careless as to his manners and awkward in his speech, but possessed a strong, clear, vigorous mind. He always attracted and riveted the attention of the House when he spoke. His manner of speech original. He had no

as well as of thought was model. He was a man of strong convictions, and what Carlyle would have called an earnest man. He abounded in anecdote. He illustrated everything he was talking about by an anecdote, always exceedingly apt and pointed; and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter." In view of the friendship between Lincoln and Stephens as fellow Whigs at this time, and the subsequent divergence of their political careers, it is interesting to record Lincoln's letter to Herndon, written from Washington, February 2, 1848, giving his earliest impression of Stephens:

DEAR WILLIAM: I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My old withered dry eyes are full of tears yet. If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people shall see a good many copies of it.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

Lincoln's partnership with Herndon, following a brief association with Judge Stephen T. Logan (1841-1843), began in 1843. This last partnership continued actively until Lincoln's election to the Presidency. The period from 1843 until the great debates with Douglas in 1858, interrupted only by his term in Congress, was preeminently that of Lincoln the lawyer. His chief intellectual concern during this distinctively professional period was the preparation and trial of cases. The extent of his service in causes before the Supreme Court of the State was probably not surpassed by any of his contemporaries of the Illinois bar.1 His partner, Herndon, we are told, was one of the most widely read men in Springfield. An authority tells us that, at this time, "Herndon's chief extravagance was buying books."2 He kept the office suplied with late volumes on a variety of subjects, a fact which greatly stimulated Lincoln's reading and conversation. His reading was stimulated also by Mrs. Lincoln and by Newton Bateman,3 State Superintendent of Education, whose cultural attainments engaged Lincoln's interest and friendship.

I Richards, "Abraham Lincoln, the Lawyer-Statesman," Chap. II and Appendix.

2 Rankin, p. 120.

3 Arnold, "Abraham Lincoln," p. 176.

An important contribution of first-hand information on the subject of Lincoln's personality and intellectual habits during this period is given by Henry B. Rankin in his "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln" (1916). The author of this interesting volume of reminiscences, who read law in the office of Lincoln and Herndon, tells us of Lincoln's introduction to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, which Herndon added to the office library. The merits of the poem aroused highly spirited discussion and diversity of opinion between the "office students and Mr. Herndon."

Later, quite a surprise occurred when we found that the Whitman poetry and our discussions had been engaging Lincoln's silent attention. After the rest of us had finished our criticism of some peculiar verses and of Whitman in general . . . and had resumed our usual duties or had departed, Lincoln, who during the criticisms had been apparently in the unapproachable depths of one of his glum moods of meditative silence

. . took up Leaves of Grass for his first reading of it. After half an hour or more devoted to it he turned back to the first pages of it, and to our general surprise, began to read aloud. Other office work was discontinued by us all while he read with sympathetic emphasis verse after verse. His rendering revealed a