The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-05-30
WHOLE NO., 2s7.

/ day Douglas was reelected United
! States senator by the Illinois legislature
III 1859 Lincoln said to him bitterly, II
expect every one to desert me now but
Billy Hcrndon." That Lincoln believed
him worthy and true is shown in more
than one proffered appointment after he
became president and in the correspond
ence between the two, which not only
overfiows with cordiality, but betrays
confidence and love as deep and abiding
as those which exist, or should exist
between brothers.
l first met Mr.. He,ndon in Spring
field, Ills. We We're sitting in one of
the dingy old rooms which he and Lin
coin had used for a law Office There
was but little in the furniture of the
room or its surroundings to suggest that
within its inclosure these primitive law
partners had ever explained the law to
their clients. prepared their papers and
charged up their fees or that through
the only door had passed outward the
figure of that tall. sad faced man whom
fate had decrced should make his way
unerringly to imperishable renown.
We sat facing the west, and our feet
rested on the sills of the old back win
dows through which Lincoln and this
same law partner had SO often gazed as
they sat there of quiet afternoons undis-
turbed by business or the calls of clients
aud discussed the varied features Of
law. religion or politics. Before and
| overhead was the same sea of blue into
which they peered. and below the same
picturesque hack yard, with its profusion
of wornout boots and discarded tin
cans. Mr.. Herndon, already the deposi-
tary of a valuable collection Of material
pertaining to Lincoln, had enlisted my
sympathetic interest and assistance in
the preparation Of life of his former
partner which, in Carlyle's language,
should tell Gods naked truth. The pur-
pose at first was series Of articles for
a magazine newly established in Chica-
go, but these afterward expanded almost
insensibly into two rather pretentious
volumes of biography. A great and in
many respects an untried field lay be-
fore MS. As none Of the former biograph-
ers of Lincoln had visited either Ken
lucky or southern Indiana, was dis
patched thither commissioned and de-
termined to obtain all the facts.
just here it is due the reader to state
that nothing was SO calculated to create
and give impetus to the myriad of un-
necessary and groundless stories regard
ing Mr.. Lincoln's origin as his singu-
larly reticent and evasive conduct when
appealed to for particulars of his early
life or the details of his ancestry. He
had drifted down the Sangamon river
into central Illinois shortly after attain
ing his majority. coming in from the
south, but beyond that nobody in that
region knew anything of his history.
When Jesse w. Fell, the secretary Of
the Republican state committee, who,
in 1859, suggested the propriety Of
sketch of his personal history for dis
tribution through Pennsylvania and 9TH
er adjacent states for the purpose Of
awakening some interest in his presiden-
tial possibilities, Lincoln treated the
matter with apparent indifference.
There is nothing in my early his
tory" he answered, "to interest you or
any one else, and besides, as Judge Da-
Wis would say, it won't pay" At last,
however, after good deal Of argument
Fell drew from him brief autobio-
graphical statement, carefully worded,
not dictated to another, but all in his
own handwriting. This mere sketch,
which fails to state what his mothers
name was or whether his parents were
ever married. was the only history or
account Of his life in existence when
the convention chose him as the stand
ard bearer Of his party in the spring Of
1860. After the nomination horde of
newspaper men swooped down on him,
notebooks III hand, to jot down what
the presidential candidate saw fit to tell
them regarding his origin and family
history, but as each fellow in turn was
referred to the Fell manuscript he went
away with curious notion in his head
that in that exceedingly condensed state
ment Of biographical facts something
had been adroitly withheld or for some
peculiar reason left unsaid. On account
OF the meager display of facts there
could not help being demand for some
thing more specific. At length, Mr.. Lin
coin, yielding to this desire, prepared
another account Of his life which his
secretary, Mr.. Nicolay, copied and sent
to friends in Ohio, New York and else
where, but though somewhat longer it
was hardly more than a repetition of
the Fell manuscript. The one curious
thing about the whole matter was that
Mr.. Lincoln insisted on writing both
these sketches himself. He dictated
most Of his correspondence to be written
by his secretary, but either because he
wanted to be mathematically exact or
for some other reason which no one
knows he prepared these productions
with his own hand. The whole thing,
viewed at this distance, seems very
strange proceeding for a presidential
candidate.
An enthusiastic friend in Kentucky
who, in the effort to locate Mr.. Lin.
coins origin or identify him with GER
tain family, wrote asking him for the
details Of his maternal genealogy was
silenced by curt letter in reply, say
ing, "You are mistaken in regard to
my mother but nothing more was
said to indicate wherein the mistake ex-
listed or how it might be corrected. 1t
is not unnatural, therefore, that out of
this maze Of reluctance, uncertainty and
doubt great many incredible and apoc.
ryphal stories connected with Mr.. Lin.