The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (45 page)

Affectionately your brother,

A. L
INCOLN

It is not known who Mr. Schlater was, but he had a sense for autographs that must have been positively psychic. At this time Abraham Lincoln was one of the least promising men in Congress. He knew how undistinguished he was and he makes no bones about saying so
.

Washington, January 5, 1849

D
EAR
S
IR
: Your note, requesting my “signature with a sentiment” was received, and should have been answered long since, but that it was mislaid. I am not a very sentimental
man; and the best sentiment I can think of is, that if you collect the signatures of all persons who are no less distinguished than I, you will have a very undistinguishing mass of names.

Possibly some echo of his experience in getting Offut’s flatboat over the dam at New Salem in the spring of 1831 influenced Lincoln in his one attempt at invention. When he returned to Springfield from Congress, the boat he was traveling on was stranded on a shoal. He then invented the device described here. Like most patents it came to nothing. The model is still on exhibition at the Patent Office in Washington
.

May 22, 1849[?]

W
HAT
I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel with the main shaft or shafts by means of the sliding spars, which pass down through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in such a manner that by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction the buoyant chambers will be forced downwards into the water, and at the same time expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.

A. L
INCOLN

John M. Clayton was Taylor’s Secretary of State. He had just come into office on March 4, 1849. Lincoln writes to him to pass on
some advice about the way a President should act in order to maintain the respect of his people. He approves Taylor’s conduct during the Mexican War when he went against his own council’s advice to follow out his own line of action. This letter, which would have been meaningless if Lincoln had remained in obscurity, takes on great significance when interpreted in the light of his own behavior when he became President
.

Springfield, Illinois, July 28, 1849

D
EAR
S
IR
: It is with some hesitation I presume to address this letter—and yet I wish not only you, but the whole cabinet, and the President too, would consider the subject matter of it. My being among the people while you and they are not, will excuse the apparent presumption. It is understood that the President at first adopted, as a general rule, to throw the responsibility of the appointments upon the respective Departments; and that such rule is adhered to and practised upon. This course I at first thought proper; and, of course, I am not now complaining of it. Still I am disappointed with the effect of it on the public mind. It is fixing for the President the unjust and ruinous character of being a mere man of straw. This must be arrested, or it will damn us all inevitably. It is said Gen. Taylor and his officers held a council of war, at Palo Alto (I believe); and that he then fought the battle against unanimous opinion of those officers. This fact (no matter whether rightfully or wrongfully) gives him more popularity than ten thousand submissions, however really wise and magnanimous those submissions may be.

The appointments need be no better than they have been, but the public must be brought to understand, that they are the
President’s
appointments. He must occasionally say, or seem to say, “by the Eternal,” “I take the responsibility.” Those phrases were the “Samson’s locks” of Gen. Jackson, and we dare not disregard the lessons of experience.

Lincoln had gone to Washington in June to further his own claim to an appointive position in the Government under the Taylor administration which he had helped to elect. He wanted the Commissionership of the General Land office but it was denied to him; he was considered for the Governorship of Oregon Territory, but was actually offered only the position as Secretary there. Mrs. Lincoln’s disinclination to go to the far West, as well as Lincoln’s own pride, made him decline the offer. Simeon Francis was the editor of the Illinois Journal, the Whig paper of Springfield. It was his wife who had brought about the reconciliation between Lincoln and Mary Todd
.

Springfield, Illinois, September 27, 1849

D
EAR
S
IR
: Your letter of the 17th inst., saying you had received no answer to yours informing me of my appointment as Secretary of Oregon, is received, and surprises me very much. I received that letter, accompanied by the commission, in due course of mail, and answered it two days after, declining the office, and warmly recommending Simeon Francis for it. I have also written you several letters since alluding to the same matter, all of which ought to have reached you before the date of your last letter.

Johnston was Lincoln’s foster brother, the son of his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, by her previous marriage. As the long series of letters to him indicates, he was improvident and shiftless, constantly appealing to Lincoln for financial assistance. Lincoln here
tries to get him a mail route so he will be able to provide for himself. The child referred to was Edward Baker Lincoln who had died on February 1, at the age of four
.

Springfield, February 23, 1850

D
EAR
B
ROTHER
: Your letter about a mail contract was received yesterday. I had made out a bid for you at $120, guaranteed it myself, got our P. M. [Postmaster] here to certify it, and send it on. Your former letter, concerning some man’s claim for a pension, was also received. I had the claim examined by those who are practised in such matters, and they decide he cannot get a pension.

As you make no mention of it, I suppose you had not learned that we lost our little boy. He was sick fifteen days, and died in the morning of the first day of this month. It was not our first, but our second child. We miss him very much. Your brother, in haste,

A. L
INCOLN

It is not known for what purpose Lincoln intended these notes, but they are good advice to any lawyer and might appropriately be framed to hang in a law office even today
.

July 1, 1850[?]

I
AM NOT
an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done
today. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done. When you bring a common-law suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine the books, and note the authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In business not likely to be litigated—ordinary collection cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like—make all examinations of titles, and note them, and even draft orders and decrees in advance. This course has a triple advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves your labor when once done, performs the labor out of court when you have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question
of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note—at least not before the consideration service is performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty—negligence by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail.

There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief—resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave.

The problems of life and death engross Lincoln in the midst of his retirement from politics, during this, the most inactive and
unhappy period of his life. His father died five days after this letter was written; his wife was in bed with “baby-sickness”—his third son, William Wallace, had been born on December 21. This letter, more than any other, shows Lincoln’s lack of affection for his father. It approaches smugness in his advice for the dying man to put his trust in God if it is “his lot to go now.” Most significant of all is the phrase: “If we could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant.…”

Springfield, January 12, 1851

D
EAR
B
ROTHER
: On the day before yesterday I received a letter from Harriet, written at Greenup. She says she has just returned from your house, and that father is very low and will hardly recover. She also says you have written me two letters, and that although you do not expect me to come now, you wonder that I do not write.

I received both your letters, and although I have not answered them, it is not because I have forgotten them, or been uninterested about them, but because it appeared to me that I could write nothing which would do any good. You already know I desire that neither father nor mother shall be in want of any comfort, either in health or sickness, while they live; and I feel sure you have not failed to use my name, if necessary, to procure a doctor, or anything else for father in his present sickness. My business is such that I could hardly leave home now, if it was not as it is, that my own wife is sick-a-bed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose is not dangerous.) I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but at all events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not
be more painful than pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them.

Again Lincoln has to offer his foster brother advice about his affairs; he has to be sterner than ever this time to hold the restless Johnston in line. He adds a postscript addressed to his stepmother, frankly advising her to quit her Charleston home and stay with the husband of Denis Hanks’ daughter. He writes again on November 25, still concerned about his stepmother’s welfare. It is interesting to note the small amounts of money involved. They are indicative of the scale on which the family lived
.

Shelbyville, November 4, 1851

D
EAR
B
ROTHER
: When I came into Charleston day before yesterday, I learned that you are anxious to sell the land where you live and move to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and cannot but think such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats without work? Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do no good. You have raised no corn this year; and what you really want is to sell the land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land you will spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat, drink, and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it my duty to have no hand in
such a piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account, and particularly on mother’s account. The eastern forty acres I intend to keep for mother while she lives; if you will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her—at least, it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two forties she can let you have, and no thanks to me. Now, do not misunderstand this letter; I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the truth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away all your time. Your thousand pretenses for not getting along better are all nonsense; they deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case.