New-York tribune., 1867-02-15
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

SPRINGFIELD, H., Jan. %, 1861
When history makes up its mind 10 commemoia'o
place no special correspondence can keep pace WI"
n After Mr. Lincolns nomination to the Presidency
the most Republican of all co0ps ddt-the H',io
o;t, Of s,ringfied ascendcd at a bound from the
commonnlace 10 the memorable. Caravans Oh pdtIi-
ots from all the other States wended across the
,,s,ireo N visit It, From market town. where eggs
were duly exchanged for calico and the father oil the
family reported himself twice year to get stone
drunk il rose to be the home of President ana sent
him across the continent TO usefulness and martyr
dom HIS body lies near by t-shIlne whch any
city might cOvet-and his prlm frame residence,
practical and mud cOlOred, have walked around
theae two nights to find my curiosity shared by
b,fdozen couples looking upon it if the tall ghost
of il, former owner might possibly appear.
Icsme here lecture of two days leisure spared me
have passed One-haf of each in conversation Win
man who knew the great citizen of Springfield for
% wears anterior TO his Chief Magistracy better and
closer than any human being. Until very lately you
might have read upon a bare stairway, opposite the
State House Square, the sign of LINCOLN * IlERN-
DON. year ago it gave place to the name of hIRN-
DON e. ZANE Ascending the stairs one flight,
YOU see two doors opening to your right hand That
In the rear leads TO VIII. for one generation the
law office of the President Within 1t is a DIS
mantIed room, strewn with faded briefs and leaves
OF law books: no desks nor chairs remaining; Its
sinele bracket of gas dQrkened in the center by
Ivbo.e flame he whom our childrens children shall
reyerently name, prepared perhaps, his gentle
sturdy utterances and out of its window you get
sweep of stable-roofs and dingy back yards where
no must have looked thousand times, ponderng
Freedom and Empire with his eye upon ash-heapS
and Growing cocks and young Americans sedging or
ball-paying As simple office, even for country
lawyer As ever I saw in my life, it is now in the
transition condition of being prepared for another
tenant I'm the middle of the the future PreSl-
dent sat at a table side and in the adjoining front
room this table and all the furniture of the place is
still retained while in its back corner, looking med
iatively at the cylinder stove, you Mr. Hendon,
the partner and authority have referred to.
He has given me permission to write what choose
of himself and his dead friend and among all the men
have ever met he is the readeSt to understand
question and to give even and direct answers. He
resembles Mr.. Lincoln 40 much, and iii his present
quarters gar6, and worldly condition, is nearly
reproduction of A. Lincoln lawyer he lived before
Fame drove chariot through this second story that
we may "a well take turn around the surviving man
and the room.
Lincoln was the taller andSOder, and the senior
partner; he had been in two or three associations
with lawyers one of his early partners, by fraud OF
mismana cement got him into debt and he carried
the burden of it about ten years his latest partner
exceptinr Herndon, was anxiOns to be a candidate
for the Legislature and as Mr.. Lincoln desired the
same honor at the time, dissolution was lnev-
table and then to HerndOns great surprise, for he
was very young and obscure, Lincoln said Billy,
let us go into business together" Herndon accepted
the proposition thankfully Mr.. Liucoln arranged
the terms Of partnership and the new shingle went
up directly. never to be removed till the bnlet of
Booth had done its Grand
How Young Herndon might have looked % years
ago wo eau scarcely infer from the saffron-faced,
bue-bacll haired man before u.s. bearded bushlly at
The throat disposed to shut eye for accuracy in
conversation his teeth discOlored by tobacco, and
over his angular features which suggest Mr. Lin
coins in ampleness and shape, the same half-tender
melancholy. the result in both cases, perhaps, of
hard frontier work, poor pay, thoughtful abstrac-
tion and disposition to share the sorrOws OF man
kind.
Oh! why should the spirit OF mortal be proud
Is the sentiment of HerndonS face, it of Mr..
Lnoon's-a gravity that beftS greatness well, when
IL comes and in the dress of the firm of Lincoln and
Herndon you see this sentiment practicalized. "Mr.
Lincoln" said Mr.. HendOn, "caTed so little about
clothes that sometimes he did not put all of them
lie was brought up barefoot" Mr.. HemdOn, by
parallel wears to-day bright yellow pair of
breeches turned up twice at the bottoms, and looks
to he wind-hardened farmer rather than one of the
best lawyers in the State, and, a public man. is
charged with delivering the best stump speeches in
Illinois on the Republican side during the last elcc-
ton. His address is homely in form, commencing
with Friend III answer yOu;' and this he does with
out equiyocaon with his long fOre-finger extended
and with such fund of information upon the
revered memory in question that although the Lin
cOln biOgIOpheTs from Holland up. have talked with
hin he seems to be brimful of new "reminiscences
With an extraordinary memory, great facility of in
ference. and a sturdy originality of opinion ht
had the effect upon me to stagger all my notion
of the dead Presidents character He has beer
wonderful deSultOry reader and in hi
law library you may see the anomalous com
psniens for a Prairie attorney of Bailey's Fesfus
Schlegel's Critques, COmte's Philosophy, LOui
Blanc. and many of the diSObedient esSaysts. HI
has OF the best private libraries in the West ant
in this respect is unlike Mr. Lincoln who seldom
bought new book and seldom read one Mr.. Lin
coins education was almost entirely a newspaper
one. He was one of the most thorough newspaper
readers in America, and for fifteen years before his
election to the Presidency subscribed regularly t.
The Richmond Inquirer and The Charleston Mercury
He grew slowly therefore, as public opinion grew
and as an ant-SlaveTy man was a gradual convert
whereas HcrndOn years before. embraced at leaI
all the social reforms, read oil the agitatOrs. anC
talked human liberty to Mr.. Lincoln, gIavely listen
ing till a fraternity of sentiment developed, and
about the year 1914 the coming emancipation declared
himself on enemy of SlavehOldmg.
II is worth while 10 stop and ponder that while
Rhett and WISE with Slavery in full feather wrote
every day the nviolaeness of Secession and the d-
vnty of bondage, these two Illinois lawyers in their
little square office, read every Wanting cruel word
paid TO read it, and educated themselves out of their