Stung by his failure at Washington,Lincoln for a time put his whole soul into the study of the law.He explained his failure to himself as a lack of mental training.[1]There followed a repetition of his early years with Logan,but with very much more determination,and with more abiding result.
In those days in Illinois,as once in England,the judges held court in a succession of towns which formed a circuit.Judge and lawyers moved from town to town,"rode the circuit"in company,--sometimes on horseback,sometimes in their own vehicles,sometimes by stage.Among the reminiscences of Lincoln on the circuit,are his "poky"old horse and his "ramshackle"old buggy.Many and many a mile,round and round the Eighth Judicial Circuit,he traveled in that humble style.
What thoughts he brooded on in his lonely drives,he seldom told.During this period the cloud over his inner life is especially dense.The outer life,in a multitude of reminiscences,is well known.One of its salient details was the large proportion of time he devoted to study.
"Frequently,I would go out on the circuit with him,"writes Herndon."We,usually,at the little country inn,occupied the same bed.In most cases,the beds were too short for him and his feet would hang over the footboard,thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone.Placing his candle at the head of his bed he would read and study for hours.I have known him to stay in this position until two o'clock in the morning.
Meanwhile,I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be safely and soundly asleep.On the circuit,in this way,he studied Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in the six books.How he could maintain his equilibrium or concentrate his thoughts on an abstract mathematical problem,while Davis,Logan,Swett,Edwards and I,so industriously and volubly filled the air with our interminable snoring,was a problem none of,us--could ever solve."[2]
A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion.
He rose rapidly in the profession;and this in spite of his incorrigible lack of system.The mechanical side of the lawyer's task,now,as in the days with Logan,annoyed him;he left the preparation of papers to his junior partner,as formerly he left it to his senior partner.But the situation had changed in a very important way.In Herndon,Lincoln had for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him,almost adored him,who was quite willing to be his man Friday.
Fortunately,for all his adoration,Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero.He was not disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides.
"He was proverbially careless as to his habits,"Herndon writes."In a letter to a fellow lawyer in another town,apologizing for his failure to answer sooner,he explains:
'First,I have been very busy in the United States Court;second,when I received the letter,I put it in my old hat,and buying a new one the next day,the old one was set aside,so the letter was lost sight of for the time.'This hat of Lincoln's--a silk plug--was an extraordinary receptacle.It was his desk and his memorandum book.In it he carried his bank-book and the bulk of his letters.Whenever in his reading or researches,he wished to preserve an idea,he jotted it down on an envelope or stray piece of paper and placed it inside the lining;afterwards,when the memorandum was needed,there was only one place to look for it."Herndon makes no bones about confessing that their office was very dirty.So neglected was it that a young man of neat habits who entered the office as a law student under Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it up,and the next visitor exclaimed in astonishment,"What's happened here!"[3]
"The office,"says that same law student,"was on the second floor of a brick building on the public square opposite the courthouse.You went up a flight of stairs and then passed along a hallway to the rear office which was a medium sized room.There was one long table in the center of the room,and a shorter one running in the opposite direction forming a T and both were covered with green baize.There were two windows which looked into the back yard.In one corner was an old-fashioned secretary with pigeonholes and a drawer;and here Mr.Lincoln and his partner kept their law papers.There was also a bookcase containing about two hundred volumes of law and miscellaneous books."The same authority adds,"There was no order in the office at all."Lincoln left all the money matters to Herndon."He never entered an item on the account book.If a fee was paid to him and Herndon was not there,he would divide the money,wrap up one part in paper and place it in his partner's desk with the inscription,"Case of Roe versus Doe,Herndon's half."He had an odd habit of reading aloud much to his partner's annoyance.He talked incessantly;a whole forenoon would sometimes go by while Lincoln occupied the whole time telling stories.[4]
