Reminiscences of a. Wayfarer
Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days
of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as
remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty
one years here.
Many years alter the battle
of Waterloo, the Duke of Wei
lington. in company w i t h a
friend, was attending a theatre
one night in London. I mined i
ately in front of them sat two
young army officers, busily en
gaged in discussing the details
of that world renowned engage
ment. The stern old Duke Ms
toned attentively to those sprigs
of the army, dressed out in full
military tig, and critically com
menting on the most decisive
battle that up to that time had
been fought in modern times,
till, with some impatience in his
manner, he turned to his friend
and said: “Pretty soon I shall
come to the conclusion I was
not there."
Similarly, I have thought,
when reading the various ac
counts of Abraham Lincoln, I
have seen since he became the
world famous character he now
is, that I did not know the man;
that it must be some other man
of the same name they were
writing about and not the llli
nois rail splitting lawyer I once
knew, who came up by the force
of his own genius to tower above
the universal group of his age,
and who in times subsequent,
became president of the United
States, conducted the greatest
war in history to a successful
conclusion, wiped from the es
cutcheon of America the foul
blot of slavery, was himself
murdered, imolated on the altar
of feudal hate and thence by the
assassin's bullet went up into
everlasting history and heaven.
That is the man I am going to
write about.
It is entirely pertinent to the
main purpose I have in mind in
writing these reminiscences that
I tell of the man Lincoln, at
whose instance and advice 1 be
came a citizen of a western ter
ritory and to whom 1 owe a per.
sonal debt of gratitude and for
whom l have a remembrance
different from any i ever had j
for any other man. Appended
to this paper is a letter I re
ceived from Mr. Lincoln in an
swer to one l had written him
asking for advice in a matter
that had for me at the moment,
a peculiar interest. 1 was near j
ing my term in college and had
about made up my mind to se
lect the profession of the law as1
my vocation in life. 1 had known i
of Mr. Lincoln all my life as lie
and my father had been young |
men together in the valley of
the Sangamon in the early years
of the decade of 18110. His name
was a kind of household word
not only in the family to which!
I belonged but among ail the j
people round about in the vicin
ity of the town he mentioned in
bis letter as New Salem. When t
I had arrived at the notion ofj
making a lawyer of myself 1 ad- j
dressed him for two reasons,;
lir>t, because he was easily the
head of a bar as brilliant as any J
in the United States in t h e i
middle of the last century; sec-1
ond, because of his friendship
and association with my father
and with the people among
whom I was born. The letter
will explain itself and will go
far to show of what stuff its
author was made and the great
kindness of heart that charac
terized every act of his life. He
was a distinctively great law
yer, high up in the favor of the
whole state, busy with great af
fairs in his profession and yet
he took time to write a letter to
a mere boy in which he not only
gives fatherly advice, but to il
lustrate his meaning, recites a
part of his own obscure history
and the circumstances under
which he prepared himself for
the same profession. Running
all through that letter there is
a vein of considerate kindness
characteristic <>l the maynificent
man who was writiny it. (treat
in his profession, distinctive in
the estimation of'men. busy with
yrcat affairs he yet re a c lied
down his hand from ids lofty
place in the bar to one of the
lowly who was seekiny to travel
the same professional road that
lie had traveled to yive him
i kindly assistance and bid him a
hearty yod speed.
I was born in the neiyhbor
hood in which he commenced 1
his career as a lawyer, and in
the same year he beyan tin
practice at Sprinyfield where
he afterwards passed the whole
of his professional life, If is
said in a recent publication that
has come under my observation,
that he did not wake tip to lind
himself famous as a lawyer, or
words of that import. It is not
at all clear what the writer of
wonderful man above all its
other household tfods, and why,
on this, the one hundredth anni
versary of bis birth, it stands at
attention to do him honor.
I had peculiar and abundant
opportunities for observing and
studying him, and his methods
of dointf thint's,but 1 doubt that
any of his contemporaries or
anybody else ever knew what
lie would do next. None of
them ever knew just how to
take him, or what to expect
from him. In the trial of a case
he rarely ever made an objec
tion to questions put to a wit
ness by his opponent. On one
occasion lie was asked in my
presence why he had allowed
certain questions to be asked
and answered by a witness.
“Well" said he, "it uas not very |
important and tin* witness knew
a fact or two that 1 wanted, and
could not very well ”et by mak- I
in” him my witness, and l con- '
eluded that by lettiny the other
side have full and unobstructed
latitude they would probably
throw a door open for me to yo
after the fact on cross examina
tion, and they did.”
Me ”ave another reason for
fort and always as something of
course, as the right thing in the
right place, and at the right
time
It is said lie was a homely
man, that is, not good looking
or very graceful in his move
ments and action. It might
strike some people that way,but
I atn bound to say it did not so
strike me. He was tall and a
little awkward, but let him get
warmed up before a jury or a
crowd and he became as grace
ful in appearance as anybody, i
In his quiet moments he had a
sad expression of countenance, ;
and there was an indefinable
suggestion in his general ap
pearance that lie had become |
old before his time. The boy
never entirely dies out of the
man, nor the girl out of the wo
man but there was nothing J
about Mr. Lincoln to impress
one with the fact that he had
ever been young. Nevertheless
he could make more fun than j
anybody, and woe unto the op
ponent who by any chance be
came the subject of his wit. ft
was not rasping or biting, nor
was it exactly ridicule, but it
was sure to subject its object to
ways the same,and like himself,
looked like it had been old fora
long time. It made him appear
very much taller than he really
was, but was essentially a part
of that incomprehensible entity
called Lincoln.
He knew the people better
than anybody, their inodes of
thought and their general lia
bility to be misled by high
sounding phrase and misty
statements He had the rare
faculty of illustrating a great
principle by things within the
ordinary experiences of men and
by parallels drawn from the
commonest affairs of life. Let
me give an instance.
As is well known, there hasal
ways been a conflict between the
followers of Jefferson and those
of Hamilton in what was called
their theories concerning the na
ture and powers of the govern
ment of this country. Jefferson
was partial to a diffusive govern
ment while it is certain Hamil
ton was in favor of a strong
central government. The con
flict between those two schools
has been steadily maintained
since the inception of the gov
ernment itself. I heard Mr.
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Fac simile of Letter of Advice written by Abraham Lincoln to Isharn Reavis in I855 now published for the first time
that twaddle meant, or what
idea he intended to convey. No
man ever awoke from the sleep
of obscurity and found himself
famous, unless he had previous
ly done something to make him
so. The great Englishman who
was responsible for this notion
of awaking to find himself fam
ous, had previously written the
epic of “Cldlde Harold", which,
when published, made the name
of Byron an unforgetable one
for all time.
But this is certain, and makes
plain 1 think, much that is puzz
ling and difficult of understand
ing in the life and history of
Abraham Lincoln, namely, that
when the great God evoked him
from the imperceptible a n d
placed him upon this earth,
there appeared the most corn
pletely original man the world
has had for a thousand years.
It was Carlyle, 1 believe, who
said, the world loves its original
men, and that is the reason, per
haps, -why the world cherishes
the memory of this strangely
allowing irrelevant and imma
terial questions to be asked, es
peciallv when the answers were
not likely to prejudice the rights
of his client. It was this: that
constant or frequent objections
were likely to create a prejudice
, in the minds of jurors, leading
them to think that the objector
was trying to hide something
from them, and whether the
jurors knew it or not, that sus
picion might at a critical stage
of their deliberations, militate
; against the interest of that side
As an advocate I don’t think
| he had an equal anywhere. He
| was all powerful with a jury,
| and only he knew, if the fact
! was known at all, why that was
so. That he could sway men
almost as lie pleased was owing
to the fact that he was a com
plete master of the human pas
sions, instinctively knowing all
the springs of action common to
men, and was able to call them
into play whenever it suited his
purpose to do so. And all that,
was done without apparent ef
a good deal of unpalatable mer
riment.
Mr. Lincoln was not careful
or particular about his clothes,
nor whether they conformed to
the latest fashion, but while
they appeared, without over
taxing the imagination, to have
been made for somebody else,
they were still about as good,
generally speaking, as thextog
gery of his associates. There
was nothing of the “dude'about
him, nor was there the slightest
indication in his peculiarity of
dress, that it was the effect of
affectation or design to attract
attention. It was always the
same, very new or all showing
service in about the same de
gree, differing from that related
of R. Wilfer, whom his great
biographer said, had but one
ambition in life, and that was
to have an entirely new suit of
clothes throughout at one and
the same time from boots tv)
hat, but had never been able to
achieve it.
He wore a very tall hat, al
Lincoln in a veryCterse way il
lustrate the difference between
these two theories. He said
that Hamilton believed it was
necessary to have a head as
well as a tail t o anything.
While the theory of .Jefferson
was all tail and no head. Ham
ilton believed in a government
resulting from a union of the
states and that said resultant
government was supreme and
formed the head while the states
formed the office of tail, so to
speak. Jefferson believed that
ultimate government belonged
to the states, and thereby pro
viding a multitude of tails and
no head.
It was a crude and homely i
way of putting the case,
but it was the whole case in a1
nut shell. The dullest mind,
could comprehend it easily when
put in that way, and might not
if put in any other way. The
idea conveyed was that without
a head the government would
be a mere rope of sand to fall
to pieces of its own weight in
case of extreme emergency.
There came a day when tlies *
two theories were put to th
test and the homely man who
was then talking, of all the mi!
lions in the great republic, ha*1
been, in the providence of (foci
selected t o determine upon
which,the nation could be saved
He selected the one his great
good common sense told bin
was the true one, that of Ale.'
under Hamilton, and all the
world now knows with wlia'
wisdom he made the selection
He would have done that i
Hamilton had never said an\
thing on the subject, for lie was
greater than Hamilton, greatt
than Jefferson (it is doubtfv
whether the latter ever had a
idea of popular government tha
he did not borrow from th
French publicist Rousseau)
greater than them all, in this
that he was more completel
representative of the people
and in the people in their aggre
gate capacity, resides all the
wisdom and all the strength v
any nation.
In great crises when life or
death Js involved in the issue
in the case of persons or na
tions, little attention is paid
to anything but the mean
necessary to efficient self-dt
fense. Constitutional limit
ations and current statute
law have little to do with the
fighting of a battle, it is nearer
the truth to say they have not)
ing to do with it.
There came a day in the lit*
of Mr. Lincoln when he w; >
charged with violating the con
stitution by employing the wa
power of the government to pur.
down armed resistance to its
lawful authority.
They said to him, you canine
coerce a sovereign state. VVelL
said he, (in effect) 1 am not trv
ing to coerce a state or states, i
am only trying to wrest the
arms from the hands of its, or
their rebellious citizens and
make them obey the lawT. It is'
a contradiction of terms to as
sunie that the states can do
anything dissociated from then
citizens. You people, said he
would use] the constitution t >
justify your attempt to destroy
the Union,as though it was pei
fectly constitutional to do that
but you say it is unconstitutioi
al for me to use it to preserv ■
the Union. If you were right
about this, the sooner wre are
rid of such a constitution th •
better, but you are not. Every
word you say to that effect is .
libel and gross slander on tha
great instrument, for in every
line of it I see ample justifies
tion for employing force to saw
the Union against force err
ployed to destroy it.
riiis is something of a digres
sion, but it is done to illustrate
tlie fact that in all the position s
in life that destiny, or duty, 01
what not, placed him, his great
good judgment,based on admir
able common sense (he called i
horse sense), was at all times
his mighty weapon of offence oi
defence as circumstances re
quired.
But it’was my original inten
tion to speak of him as I knew
him, that is, as a hoy knows a
man, before inexorable destiny
took him up and placed his name
among the stars.
My acquaintance with him
covered the three years I was
reading law. I did not read in
his office for reasons given in
his letter hereto attached, but
that did not prevent me having
the benefit of his advice and
counsel, and to have before me
the constant object lesson af
forded me by witnessing his con
duct of many cases in the courts
Let me give an illustration ot
his advice to me. He was de
fending in the Armstrong mur
der case, and I observed in se
lecting the jury, his peremptor\
challenges were not directed U
individual jurors as being per
sonally objectionable, but to a
class of persons. He was fre
Contiuued on Next Page.
