Something of Men I Have Known | Page 2

13 JAMES G. BLAINE 18 ROBERT E.
WILLIAMS 19 JAMES A. GARFIELD 22 NATH. P. BANKS 23
WILLIAM R. MORRISON 26 WILLIAM M. SPRINGER 27
SAMUEL J. RANDALL 30 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 30
LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR 30 JAMES B. BECK 30 DAVID DUDLEY
FIELD 31 HENRY WATTERSON 33 SAMUEL S. COX 34 LEVI P.
MORTON 48 JAMES A. McKENZIE 49 WILLIAM McKINLEY 56
SENATE TESTIMONIAL TO MR. STEVENSON AS PRESIDENT
OF SENATE 57 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 82 ANDREW JOHNSON 83
ULYSSES S. GRANT 100 HORATIO SEYMOUR 101 STEPHEN A.
DOUGLAS 126 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 127 WILLIAM M. GWIN
170 JAMES SHIELDS 171 JAMES SMITHSON 174 JOSEPH
HENRY 175 JOHN REYNOLDS 196 JOSEPH SMITH 197 R. G.
INGERSOLL 226 PETER CARTWRIGHT 227 CLEVELAND AND
STEVENSON 240 WILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS 241 WILLIAM M.
EVARTS 262 JOE WHEELER 263 DAVID DAVIS 286 S. S.
PRENTISS 287 EDWIN BOOTH 304 JOSEPH JEFFERSON 305
RUFUS CHOATE 312 ISAAC N. PHILLIPS 313 WILLIAM
JENNINGS BRYAN 316 W. H. MILBURN 317 R. J. OGLESBY 346
JOSEPH W. FIFER 347 LAWRENCE WELDON 352 THOMAS F.
MARSHALL 353 MATTHEW T. SCOTT 372 ADLAI E.
STEVENSON 373 LYMAN TRUMBULL 382 HOME OF ADLAI E.
STEVENSON, BLOOMINGTON, ILL. 383

SOMETHING OF MEN I HAVE KNOWN

I ON THE CIRCUIT
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY AFTER THE CIVIL
WAR--SLAVERY THE APPLE OF DISCORD BEFORE THE
WAR--LINCOLN AS A COUNTRY LAWYER--SOCIABILITY OF

THE LAWYERS OF THE PERIOD--THEIR EXCELLENCE AS
ORATORS--HENRY CLAY AS A PARTY LEADER--EULOGIUMS
ON LAWYERS--LINCOLN'S ADMIRATION FOR GENERAL
WINFIELD SCOTT--THE WRITER'S ADDRESS ON THE LAW
AND LAWYERS.
The period extending from my first election to Congress in 1874, to my
retirement from the Vice-Presidency in 1897, was one of marvellous
development to the country. Large enterprises were undertaken, and the
sure foundation was laid for much of existing business conditions. The
South had recovered from the sad effects of the Civil War, and had in a
measure regained its former position in the world of trade, as well as in
that pertaining to the affairs of the Government. The population of the
country had almost doubled; the ratio of representation in the Lower
House of Congress largely augmented; the entire electoral vote
increased from 369 to 444. Eight new States had been admitted to the
Union, thus increasing the number of Senators from seventy-four to
ninety.
The years mentioned likewise witnessed the passing from the national
stage, with few exceptions, of the men who had taken a conspicuous
part in the great debates directly preceding and during the Civil War
and the reconstruction period which immediately followed. By the
arbitrament of war, and by constitutional amendment, old questions, for
a half-century the prime cause of sectional strife, had been irrevocably
settled, and passed to the domain of history. New men had come to the
front, and new questions were to be discussed and determined.
To the student of history, the years immediately preceding the Civil
War are of abiding interest. In some of its phases slavery was the
all-absorbing subject of debate throughout the entire country. It had
been the one recognized peril to the Union since the formation of the
Government. Beginning with the debates in the convention that
formulated the Federal Constitution, it remained for seventy years the
apple of discord,--the subject of patriotic apprehension and repeated
compromise. The last serious attempt to settle this question in the
manner just indicated was by the adjustment known in our political

history as "the compromise measures of 1850." These measures,
although bitterly denounced in the South as well as in the North,
received the sanction in national convention of both of the great parties
that two years later presented candidates for the Presidency. It is not
doubt true that a majority of the people, in both sections of the country,
then believed that the question that had been so fraught with peril to
national unity from the beginning was at length settled for all time. The
rude awakening came two years later, when the country was aroused, as
it had rarely been before, by impassioned debate in and out of Congress,
over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It was a period of
excitement such as we shall probably not see again. Slavery in all its
phases was the one topic of earnest discussion, both upon the hustings
and at the fireside. There was little talk now of compromise. The
old-time statesmen of the Clay and Webster, Winthrop and Crittenden,
school soon disappeared from the arena. Men hitherto comparatively
unknown to the country at large were soon to the front.
Conspicuous among them was a country lawyer whose home was at
Springfield, Illinois. With the mighty events soon to follow, his name is
imperishably linked. But it is not of Lincoln the President, the
emancipator, the martyr, we are now to