The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-24
LINCOLN AND HERNDOy.


Written for the Indianapolis Journal.
AlmosG any day you pass down one CT the main
streets of this place you arc likely to across
tall and plainly dressed old man, whose APP
pearance indicates that he has seen well nigh
seventy summers. His coatcollar is turned up
to keep off the wind, black siouch hat fits
closely on his head and mayhap one leg of his
trousers is stuffed in his boot. His face is of
the Yankee pattern, set with two bright, black
eyes: and when he talks his words chase each
other with wonderful rapidity. On Saturdays
you will find him in front of Saunders store,
chatting to a handful of farmers who have con-
gregated there. If you stop and listen, you viii
be satisfied he is not the ordinary farmer, but a
man whose conversation indicates education and
better days. The man is William H. Herndon,
who for twenty years was Lincoln's law
partner, and who more than any other
man shared the great emancipator's con-
fidence and affection. He is affabIe
and interesting; calls you friend" when you sa-
Lutte him. loves every one he meets and believes
the world is growing better. When he and
Lincoln were partners, they were the strongest
team" in Illinois Herndon was a great scholar,
of profound resources, and familiar with all the
authorities in the law books. As a rule he pre-
pared the papers,, or as the lawyers say, Olu the
office work, while Lincoln presented the case In
court They were noted among the other law
yers for their shrewdness, and power, and lucky
was he who escaped from the ingenuity of
and the logic of the other. Some years after the 4
assassination of Lincoln, Herndon abandoned
the practice of law and retired to farm of his
some six miles from Springfield. There he still
lives, surrounded by his library and con-
his days at safo e' distance ea@ .rom the
busy world. Herndon has been the victim of
much misrepresentation by the world; but
withal. it has not soured him. His charity for
mankind is so broad he finds palliation for it
ALL 1t is said that the male parent of the great
stalwart senator from New York. and a man of
considerable ability, complained once because he
was introduced as the father of Roscoe Conklng.
The world only knows Herndon as the partner of
Lincoln, but be is really man of great ability,
aud seeks to stand on his own merits. Away
back In anti-slavery days he was the most pro-
nounced Abolitionist in central Illinois. He pro-
claimed against slavery from the stump and at
the bar. man who read extensively, he had
greater store of facts from which to draw than
others-not excepting Lincoln himself. In his
warfare against the great curse of the day he was
uncompromising and courageous. In those days
Lincoln was ceming into public notice. He, too,
began by fighting the slave power; but he was
ambitious-in fact too ambitious for popular es-
teem-to take the bold and decided stand Hern-
don did. When Lincoln was preparing for the
with Douglas his friends counseed with
him regarding the position he should assume in
dealing with the great issue of the day-the
slavery question. Heads were put together,
notes compared and ideas exchanged and on the
night of June IT, 185S-the evening before the
State convention when Lincoln was nominated
United States senator in opposition to Douglas
these friends met Lincoln, and, with him,
framed the declaration of war to be announced
by him when he accepted the nomination
the next day. Upon that declaration he
and Douglas were to go before the country. AS
prepared it was not pointed enough, lacked too
much the essentials Of a firebrand to suit Hern-
don. Accordingly late that night he discussed
the situation with Lincoln; laughed at the idea
of moderation or Cancellation in handling such
great question; insisted he should take a holder
stand than the ground recommended by his
friends; if he did so, here was the opportunity
of making himself the greatest leader of the
day. In support of his position he read to him the
views of some Scotch philosopher who lays
down the proposition that two opposing forces
cannot long exist together, that the tendency is
for one to absorb the other. Herndon kept on
in this strain and finally his views and adj
vice prevailed The next day when Lincoln
delivered his celebrated 'housediyided-ag against
itself" speech, when he threw into the teeth of
the Little Giant the threat that 'this govern.
ment cannot endure half slave and half free,a
his friends were dismayed-he had gone too far.
But Herndon was happy; his Scotch philosophy
had won AS people pressed forward to con-
graduate Lincoln his partner whispered in his
ear Lincoln, you've driven the last nail in
Stewards coffin" And so he had That speech
lifted Lincoln high above the heads Of those
around him. It drew to him the eyes of all the
Union Even hot-headed New England with her
Phillips, her Garrison and her Summer, moved
past the illustrious senator from the Empire
State and chose the unpretentious lawyer from
the prairies of Illinois as the representative Of
her advanced ideas.
AS said before, Herndon has not been Justly
dealt with by the world. Others more amhi-
tious and less charitable have grasped the prize
which rightly belonged to him. From Lincoln
he asked no Office, and had he wished any, the
friendship between them was of such nature
asking would not have been necessary sat
with him some time ago, in dingy little room
here, which had once been their Office. Here
were the very steps they climbed, and here, too,
the very fire place, before which Lincoln spun
out many yarn. At that time they were men
of energy and enthusiasm, prominent at the bar
and on the stump, and while one goes down in
history as the great man of the age, let as not
forget his bosom friend who when both were
young and struggling to gain foothold in the
world, shared and helped mold his views stood
by him in the early conflict, and held his hand
in the grip of manly confidence. wv. w.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Jan. Is, 1885