The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1867-03-07
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
A Talk with the IaIe Presidents
Law Partner,


A correspondent Of the New York
Tribune recently visited Mr.. Herndon,
ABRAHAM LINcoLN's former law part
ner, and gave the following interest.
ing account of his interview with him,
viz:
Mr.. Hcrnon has given me permis-
sion to write what ! choose of himself
and his dead friend, and among all
the men l ever met, he is the readiest
to understand a question and to give
even and direct answers. He resem-
bles Mr.. Lincoln so much, and in his
present quarters, garb, and worldly
condition, is SO nearly a reproduction
of A. Lincoln, lawyer, as he lived be-
fore Fame drove chariot through
this second story, that we may as well
take turn round the surviving man
and the room.
Lincoln was the taller and older,
and the senior partner he had been
in two or three associations with law.
yers; one of his early partners by
fraud or mismanagement, got him in
to debt, and he carried the burden of
it about ten years; his latest parther,
excepting Herndon, was anxions to be
candidate for the Legislature, and
as Mr.. Lincoln desired the same honor
at the same time, a dissolution was in
evitable, and then to Herndon's great
surprise, for he was very young and
obscure, Lincoln said :"Billy, let us 60
into business together" Herndon
accepted the proposition thankfully.
Mr.. Lincoln arranged the terms OF
partnership, and the new "shingle"
went up directly, never to be removed
till the bullet of Booth had done its
crrand.
How young Herndon might have
looked twenty-five years ago we can
scarcely infer from the saffron faced
blue black haired man before US
bearded bushily at the throat. disposed
to shut one eye for accuracy in conver
sation, his teeth discolored by tobacco
and over his angular features, which
Suggest Mr.. Lincoln's in amplenes'
and shape, the same halftender mel
ancholy, the result in both cases, per
haps, OF hard frontier work, poor pay
thoughtful abstraction, and disposi
tion to share the sorrows of mankind
Obi why should the spirit of mortal be proud
is the sentiment of Herndon's face a
it was of Mr.. Liucoln's-a gravity tha
BELTS greatness well, when it comes
and in the dress of the firm of Lin
coin and Herndon you see this sent
ment practicalized. "Mr. Lincoln,
said Mr.. Herndon, scared so littl
about clothes that sometimes. he di
not put all of them on. He wa
brought up bare foot" Mr.. Helndol
by parallel. wears to-day bright ye
o low pair OF breecbes, turned up twic
at the bottoms, and looks to be wine
hardened farmer, rather than one
the best lawyers irDhe State, and, as
public man, is charged with deliverin
the best stump speeches in Illinois, Q
a the Republican side, during the la
election. His address is homely
form, commencing with, "Friend [
i, answer you," and this he does withol
equivocation, with his long fore-fing
extended, and with such fund of ne
information upon the revered memol
in question that although the Linco
biographers from Holland up, ha
talked with him; he seems to be bril-
full OF new "reminiscences. With an e
l. traordinary memory, great facility
inference, and sturdy originality
opinion, he had the effect upon me
n stagger all my notions of the de
re Presidents character. He has beer
an an wonderful desultory reader and in
@ @er. law library you may see the anon
lous companions for Prairie attorn
of Bailcy's FeStus, Schlege's Critiqu
yes gS. Comte's Philosophy, Louis Blanc a
Ior many of the disobedient essayists.
arg arg has one of the best private libraries
edi the West, and in this respect is unli
Mr.. Lincoln, who seldom bought a n
Ca. book, and seldom read one. Mr.. u
his coins education was entirely a ne'
t.@ G paper one. He was one of the m
Inns Ihid thorough newspaper readers in Am
ica, and for fifteen years before
election to the Presidency subscril
%%IPtt %IPet regularly to the Richmond Enqu'
ZEE and tie Charleston Mercury.
'0'' grew slowly, therefore, as public OF
ion grew, and as an antl'slavery n
ion was u gradual convert, whereas, lie
. don, years before, embraced at |
all the social reforms, read all the
Sds- Sas. tators, and talked human liberty to
itis Lincoln, gravoly listening, and ali
lO'' the year 1874, the coming emancl
tor declared himselfan enemy ofslf
,D1, sO1r holding.
per per 1t is worth while to stop and pon
that while Rhett and Wise, with Sl'
,,.o ry in full feather, wrote every day
! our inviolateness OF Secession & the di
ming ity of bondage, these two Illinois
ycrs, in their little square office,
every vaunting, cruel word, paid
read it, and educated themselves OF
their mutual indignations-the on
n grand agency, the other to as g.
w adherence.
Mr.. Lincoln had some six or 81
DIS. places Of residence during his life
was of full age before he left his f
lists. ly, never to return, and the pleas
est Of his "reminiscences were ol
mother, to whom he imputed the
and the brightest qualities he had
nch 4 herited. He broke out once to
yorIs.. sork. Herndon, as they we're returning