The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-10
VOORHEES, ON LINCOLN.
Some Interesting "reminiscences of Him as
Lawyer and President.

Lawyer and President.
Daniel W. VOORHEES,, the l" tall sycamore
of the Wabash" who was as entirely
opposed to Abraham Lincoln as could
well be in his whole political course, has
given correspondence the Kansas City
Times some of the best "reminiscences of
the great president that have been print
ed. He said: Lincoln was one of the
first men knew after began to prac-
tice law. At that time LAWYERS travelled
a circuit l was then, as now, in In
diana, while Lincoln was in Illinois, but
our respective circuits, going to the
State line in each instance, joined, and
our business frequently took us into
each others bailiwicks. Lincoln was
very kind to and considerable of mel
was green, untried and a much younger
man than he-and can recall many
favor he did me.
He was strong lawyer and singularly
successful AS politician I never met
bic, enterprising, and with a courage
which never f1inched. I look on him as
the best and most sagacious politician
in high, big way who ever set foot in
the White House. What we call "gib
politicians" are, generally speaking a
dwarfed and mindless generation COM
pared to Abe Lincoln. He gave you an
impression of greatness every moment.
He never did, and by nature couldn't,
conceive of doing, a mean or little thing.
I saw him as lawyer, and | was in
Congress while he was in the White
House. I knew him intimately and
under varying conditions. | have seen
him surrounded by state of affairs whicq
would have overborne any other man
I ever met. And yet never saw Lincoln
fall short or fail to fulfill every necessity
the moment it arose. He answered
every requirement of every hour in his
great life, and rose to meet every emer-
gency with an ease which spoke of I'M
limited power in reserve. He was great
mana great American.
Lincoln's personal courage had no.
limit He was afraid of nothing on
earth. He received, know, as many
as half dozen letters every week threat
ening assassination. He never needed
them and seldom referred to them. He
went about as freely as Grover Cleve-
ld1lu QOCS HOW. I1S WOuIo Stb luUO UuC
saddle and canter out to the soldiers
home, six miles, and an assassin could
have picked him off with rifle at every
step of the way. Lincoln never appeared
to have the slightest fear of it. Stanton
used to get scared and put guards around
Lincoln, but the latter only laughed at
it. He had great laugh-a high, must
orsstold story which particularly pleased
him he would walk up and down the
room with one hand on the small of his
back and the other rubbing his hair in
all directions, and make things ring
with laughter.
Lincoln has great fame as a story-tel-
Ter; and yet the truth isn't half told.
First and last, he told thousands and
thousands of stories. He was we'll
spring of anecdotes. Yet under all this
humor and all this laughter, he was
tender, sensitive, ssromantic, Outlines
sad He appeared hard and practical,
and yet no man ever lived who needed
and craved sympathy more than Lincoln.
He was strongly social in his nature
Like all men of the highest courage,
fearing nobody, he hated none. He
would oppose a man to the death, but
he would never hate him.
While Lincoln was fearless in his own
nature, he had the keenest forbearance
for the timidity of others. He would
never consent to shoot soldier for
cowardice. He called them "leg cases. !"
mo one need ever expect me to sanction
4he shooting of man for running away
in a battle.n he said to me once; u
won't do it. A man can't help being
coward any more than he could help
being humphack if he were born so.
nThen. turning to me again, he said
"Voorhees, were you ever scared?"
r ooyfocco6 hot 7 had 1ittJa
experience that way.
$50 have l." said Lincoln, laughing,
"and L know just what it means. And
in any contest or controversy which arises
between the head and the heels I never
knew the heels to get anything but the
best of it. No, sir, they needn't send
any leg cases to me at all. I'll never
order a man shot for any such offense"
Once when | was up to the White
House to see him about something, he
turned to me with pathetic look of
anxious pain and said: "Voorhees
doesn't it seem strange that should be
here-I, man who couldn't cut a
chickens head OIL, with blood running
all around me?"
Speaking of his mum berless stories,
recall one he once told during the argu-
ment in law suit The lawyer on the
other side was good deal of glib talk
er, but not reckoned as deeply profound
or much of a thinker. He was rather
reckless and irresponsible in his speech
making also, and would say anything to
jury which happened to enter his head.
Lincoln in his address to the jury. re-
ferring to all this, said: My friend on
the other side is all right, or would be
all right were it not for the physicoment-
al popularity I am about to chronicle:
His habit-of which you have witnessed
very painful specimen in his argument
to you in this case-of reckless assertion
and. statement without grounds. need
not be imputed to him as moral fault
or as telling of moral blemish. He
can't help it. For reasons which, gem
tlemen of the jury, you and I have not
time to study here, as deplorable as they
are surprising, the oratory of the gentle.
man completely snspends all action of
his mind. The moment he beigns to
talk his mental operations cease. never
knew of but one thing which compared
with my friend in this particular. That
was a small steamboat. Back in the
DAYS when I performed my part as a
keel boatman, I made the acquaintance
of trifing little steamboat, which
used to.bustIe and puff and wheeze about
in the Sangamon river. It had five
foot boiler and a seven-foot whistle,