. Lincoln, the lawyer. ack of engagement fever and malaria, andall his life he fought despondency with jest andjoke and story, winning where most men wouldhave lost. Humor was the talisman with whichhe exercised the fretful fiends of doubt andcare. If Lincoln had yielded to his natural tenden-cies and encouraged self-distrust at the momentof parting with Judge Logan, he could easilyhave found another partner with a ready-madepractice in Springfield; for there were a numberof well-established lawyers who would have beenonly too glad to make generous terms withLogans ex-associate. His days of ev
. Lincoln, the lawyer. ack of engagement fever and malaria, andall his life he fought despondency with jest andjoke and story, winning where most men wouldhave lost. Humor was the talisman with whichhe exercised the fretful fiends of doubt andcare. If Lincoln had yielded to his natural tenden-cies and encouraged self-distrust at the momentof parting with Judge Logan, he could easilyhave found another partner with a ready-madepractice in Springfield; for there were a numberof well-established lawyers who would have beenonly too glad to make generous terms withLogans ex-associate. His days of even quasi-dependence were over, however, and he wasambitious to be the head and front of his ownbusiness. Of course the simplest method ofaccomplishing this would have been to practiseby himself. Yet had he started out absolutelyalone, he would have been obliged to undertakeall his own office work, for law clerks were noteasily procured in those days, and he was utterlyunfitted by nature for coping with small drudg- 138. William H. Herndor HEAD OF A LAW FIRM eries. Moreover, it so happened that one of hisfriends, recently admitted to the bar, was in needof just the start which a junior partnership pro-vided, and it was under these circumstances thathe offered William Henry Herndon the chanceof his life. It is a curious coincidence that all three ofLincolns partners were, like him, natives ofKentucky; but Herndons family had moved toIllinois when he was a mere child, and his youthhad been passed in the neighborhood of Spring-field. He was nine years younger than his seniorpartner, whom he had first encountered on theeventful occasion when Lincoln had piloted thegallant steamer Talisman in her attempt to forcethe passage of the Sangamon, and this acciden-tal meeting led to a closer acquaintance, whichwas turned to friendship through an incidentconnected with the murder of Elijah Love joy,the Abolitionist. Herndon was a student in the college at Jack-sonville, Illinois, when Love j
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlawyers, bookyear1912
