Something of Men I Have Known | Page 3

speak. It is of Lincoln the
country lawyer, as he stepped upon the arena of high debate, the
unswerving antagonist of slavery extension half a century and more
ago.
His home, during his entire professional life, was at the capital of the
State. He was, at the time mentioned, in general practice as a lawyer
and a regular attendant upon the neighboring courts. His early
opportunities for education were meagre indeed. He had been a student
of men, rather than of books. He was, in the most expressive sense, "of
the people,"--the people as they then were. For,
"Know thou this, that men are as the time is."
His training was, in large measure, under the severe conditions to be
briefly mentioned. The old-time custom of "riding the circuit" is to the
present generation of lawyers only a tradition. The few who remember
central Illinois as it was sixty years ago will readily recall the full

meaning of the expression. The district in which Mr. Lincoln practised
extended from the counties of Livingston and Woodford upon the north,
almost to the Indiana line--embracing the present cities of Danville,
Springfield, and Bloomington. The last named was the home of the
Hon. David Davis, the presiding judge of the district. As is well known,
he was the intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln, and the latter was often his
guest during attendance upon the courts at Bloomington. At that early
day, the term of court in few of the counties continued longer than a
week, so that much of the time of the judge and the lawyers who
travelled the circuit with him was spent upon horseback. When it is
remembered that there were then no railroads, but few bridges, a sparse
population, and that more than half the area embraced in that district
was unbroken prairie, the real significance of riding the circuit will
fully appear. It was of this period that the late Governor Ford, speaking
of Judge Young,--whose district extended from Quincy, upon the
Mississippi River to Chicago,--said: "He possesses in rare degree one
of the highest requisites for a good circuit judge, --he is an excellent
horseback rider."
At the period mentioned there were few law-books in the State. The
monster libraries of later days had not yet arrived. The half-dozen
volumes of State Reports, together with the Statutes and a few leading
text-books, constituted the lawyer's library. To an Illinois lawyer upon
the circuit, a pair of saddle-bags was an indispensable part of his outfit.
With these, containing the few books mentioned and a change or two of
linen, and supplied with the necessary horse, saddle and bridle, the
lawyer of the pioneer days was duly equipped for the active duties of
his calling. The lack of numerous volumes of adjudicated cases was,
however, not an unmixed evil. Causes were necessarily argued upon
principle. How well this conduced to the making of the real lawyer is
well known. The admonition, "Beware the man who reads but one
book," is of deep significance. The complaint to-day is not of scarcity,
but that "of the making of many books there is no end." Professor
Phelps is authority for the statement that "it is easy to find single
opinions in which more authorities are cited than were mentioned by
Marshall in the whole thirty years of his unexampled judicial life; and
briefs that contain more cases than Webster referred to in all the

arguments he ever delivered."
The lawyers of the times whereof we write were, almost without
exception, politicians--in close touch with the people, easy of approach,
and obliging to the last degree. Generally speaking, a lawyer's office
was as open to the public as the Courthouse itself. That his
surroundings were favorable to the cultivation of a high degree of
sociability goes without saying. Story-telling helped often on the circuit
to while away the long evenings at country taverns. At times,
perchance,
"the night drave on wi' sangs and clatter."
Oratory counted for much more then than now. When an important
case was on trial all other pursuits were for the time suspended, and the
people for miles around were in prompt attendance. This was especially
the case when it was known that one or more of the leading advocates
were to speak. The litigation, too, was to a large extent different from
that of to-day. The country was new, population sparse; the luxuries
and many of the comforts of life yet in the future; post-offices, schools,
and churches many miles away. In every cabin were to be found the
powder-horn, bullet-pouch, and rifle. The restraints and amenities of
modern society were in large measure unknown; and altogether much
was to be, and was, "pardoned to the spirit of liberty." There were no
great corporations to be chosen defendants, but much