The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-16
LAWYER LINCOLN.
George r. Peck Discusses the
Martyred President.
Tells Wisconsin Bar That He
Was a Poor Attorney.
WAS NOT HIS DESTINY.
The Great Emancipation Pre-
ferred Politics to Law.
His Great Struggle Was to
Abolish Slavery.
WAS NOT HIS DESTINY.

paper on Lincoln as a Lawyer. 4he
paper was heartily received, and as Mr..
Peck concluded his eulogy Of Lincoln
the association applauded. In the open
ing Mr.. Peck said:
Abraham Lincoln was, I think, the
greatest man of his century, and one
of the greatest of all the centuries. But
it is not as p lawyer he will be remem-
bered. Abraham Lincoln as a. lawyer
was eminently respectable, and might |
have been in the first rank if only he
had believed that to be a lawyer was
the destiny to which he was called. /
Some men are only fit to be lawyers;
but there never was a. man of the first /
class who could not be more if the OPP |
portunity came. It did come to him,
and he stepped from his law Office into /
the worlds history.
How it ali came about; why it was
ne and not another; what strange com |
bination OF opportunity and will made
him the central figure of an era we
cannot fathom. Simple rules cannot /
explain him nor explain the transfer |
nation from his birth in a Kentucky |
cabin to the White House, and from
friendlesS poverty to the highest station
in the world. He was what he was, and
the analysis ends there. In all his
great career there was little that was
dazzling and nothing that was meteOr1c.
He began at the lowest and ended at
the slow and patient steps of a man
content to wait for rewards until they
should come in their own good time"
PREFERS POLITICS TO LAW.
Mr.. Peck referred to the many inter
TuptiOns in LincOln's career at the bar
adding that no one could read the
story Of his life without seeing that
with him the law was never his first
love-" but that. he preferred politics, or
at least addressing his fellow c1tizens
ION the political issues Of the day.
Continuing, he said:
Abraham Lincoln never drifted away
from the mornings of a plain and
homely common sense. His messages,
his state papers, his speeches, and his
letters are all laden with this great,
rare quality, and no man, think, since
Shakespeare, ever had the art, or
rather the nature, to say so much in a
single sentence"
Mr.. Peck quoted from prominent
members of the bench and bar their
opinions of Lincoln. EX-Judge Henry
W. BlOdgett had said: His great sue
cess was the result of his unrivaled
clearness of statement and of his alb
sOluta fairness and candor." HerndOn
said Lincoln was a good lawyer in
a good case and a poor lawyer in a bad
case" Judge David Davis estimate
was: 1.-THE framework of his mental
and moral being was honesty, and a
wrong cause was poorly defended by
him" Judge Drummond said: ''Such
was the transparent candor and integ-
or strongly argue side OF cause
that he thought wrong" Nicolay and
Hay declared that ION the wrong side
he was always weak"
ILNCOLN'S LEGAL METHOD.
''Was Abraham Lincoln a learned
iawyer2" Mr.. Peck continued. Il do
not think he was By this I mean he
was not a student of the law in it's
historical and scientific aspects. 1t was
his means of gaining a livelihood, and
11a uIrr frf1 70 ,7a1r ( Of
Vtndicating right and establishing JUS
tice. But his tastes did not lead him
into the realm of philosophical juris-
prudence. He adored Henry Clay, but
do not think he cared for Austin or
Bentham or Beccaria. His mind was
unerringly logical and his faculties
clear as ice. 1 imagine his forensic ar
gumentS were like his political ones
compact, convincing, memorable. A
pitileSs analysis of his opponents posi-
ton was his favorite method of prov
ing 1t to be wrong, and when the analy-
sis was completed, a single sentence
would be the thunderbolt which should
end the discussion. In his great Spring
field speech before the convention which
nominated him for senator against that
other great IlltnOisan, Stephen A. Doug
las, ne summed up the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty in these words:
That If any man choose to enslave an
other. no third man shall be allowed
to oOject.' 1t would have taken any
common man many pages to say that,
but he said it in sixteen simple words y
Considering the question of Lincoln's
professional learning, Mr.. Peck said:
THE origin and growth of legal prin-
ciples and the development Of legal doc
trines were not within the scope of his
training, and I do not think he ever
gave much time to them. His mind
was not of the order that enriches it
self by piling up the treasures which
other men have left after lives of study
I do not say he would not have been
hGfrRr he f11f 7
simply describing him as he was. The
case he had in hand at the given time
was the case he studied and analysed
until 1t was so plain to his own mind
that he gave it to the court inumed as
by the light of the sun"
HIS ESTIMATE OF A LAWYER
Mr.. Peck read a fragment written by
Lincoln for delivery before some law
class, giving his own idea, of what a
lawyer should be, and commented thus:
There is Abraham Lincoln revealed
more truly than Shakespeare is re-
vealed by those sonnets in which it is
said he unlocked his heart There is
much in 1t about diligence and prompt
ness. something about fees-to which
no good lawyer IS ever indiferent-but
more about honesty, that Old-faShiOned
virtue which is not so rare as some
people think, and which, hope and be-
1eVe, is less rare in our profession than
anywhere else. am not unmindful
that mere talk about honesty is not de-
cisive of any mans character in that
respect, but the testimony is conclu-
sive that Lincoln was clean and clear
in all his dealings with his clients and
with his fellowmen."
Next Mr.. Peck traced Lincoln's rude
and simple preparation for and entry
into the legal ofession-reading law
books borrowed from Major Stuart
while keeping tavern or acting as sur
veyOr or postmaster. He traced the
career OF the law firm of Stuart &
Lincoln at Springfield and emphasized
the influence OF the junior partner with