which gave him a majority of 57 over all his opponents. Douglas got only seven, three from New Jersey and four from Missouri. Bell carried the States of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with 39 votes, and Breckenridge all the Southern States and the border States of Delaware and Maryland, giving him 72 votes. The total popular vote, except South Carolina, whose electors were chosen by the Legislature, was 4,680,193. Of these Lincoln received 1,866,452; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckenridge, 847,953, which, with the vote of South Carolina was increased to 900,000; and Bell had 590,631. So that Douglas, who was second before the people, was lowest in the electoral college. Lincoln won over 26,000 votes in the border States, but not a single ballot in the South, and he failed by 474,000 of getting a majority of the popular vote. An ominous result; a divided North, with a majority against slavery, against a practically united South in favor of slavery.

During the campaign Lincoln remained quietly in Springfield, where the Governor's rooms in the State House were placed at his disposal, and there he met his callers, talked and joked, while preserving a sphinx-like silence. Wary and discreet, he wrote very little, and when embarrassing questions were asked he told a story or had his secretary, John G. Nicolay, make a stereotyped reply, referring to his record and his speeches. "If they will not hear Moses and the prophets," he wrote to William Speer, "neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Some of the abuse heaped upon him gave him pain, for it was bitter to the point of brutality, especially in the Southern papers. Perhaps nothing gave him more sorrow than the attitude of the Springfield preachers: for of the twenty-three in town, twenty were against him. "These men well know," he said, "that I am for freedom, and yet with this book". the New Testament - "in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not understand it at all.'

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No sooner had the vote been cast than Springfield became a 1 Life of Lincoln, by J. G. Holland, pp. 236-39 (1866).

mecca for newspaper men, would-be biographers, and a horde of hungry office-seekers. The number of "original Lincoln men" became a multitude, giving their idol a foretaste of what he had to expect. Gentlemen with light baggage and heavy schemes came in deputations and delegations from all quarters and the hotels were jammed. Lincoln and Artemus Ward saw no end of fun in this motley procession, and it was the fun that saved him. For, with the government in weak, if not hostile hands, and threatening chaos in the South, where anger flashed like lightning, this time of waiting was trying in the extreme. He was busy at cabinet making betimes, which was no easy task in view of the material with which he had to work. Often he would escape from the crowd and drop into the old office and have a chat with Herndon, and talk over affairs of business and state. He asked his partner to furnish some books to be used in writing his inaugural address - the speech of Henry Clay in 1850, the proclamation of Jackson against Nullification, and a copy of the Constitution; and later, Webster's reply to Hayne, which he regarded as the masterpiece of American eloquence. With these he retired to a dingy back room across from the State House, and wrote that address in which firmness blended with a half-sad gentleness.

Old New Salem friends called to see him, and more than one brought up the memory of Ann Rutledge whose image he still kept in his heart, wrapped in the sweet and awful sadness of the valley of shadows. He slipped away to visit the grave of his father, and rode to Farmington, in Coles County, to see his aged step-mother who was still living. Amid such scenes of farewell, and the kindly greetings of old and dear friends, a

1 An incident of these trying days was an exchange of letters with Alexander Stephens, of Georgia. Stephens had made a speech before the Legislature of his State in favor of the Union, and Lincoln sent for a copy of it. Stephens sent the address, and with it a friendly letter reminding Lincoln of his solemn responsibility in time of peril. To which Lincoln replied, "for your eye only," asking if the people of the South really thought that he had any inclination to interfere with slavery in the States. Stephens respected the confidence until after the death of his friend. Life of Stephens, by L. Pendleton, pp. 165-6 (1907). Also, Constitutional View of the War, by Stephens, Vol. II, p. 266 (1870).

gloom as of the grave overshadowed, reviving the premonition, of which he had talked to Herndon as early as 1843, that some violent end was to overtake him at last. The last afternoon before he left for Washington was spent with Herndon in the office, in which they had toiled, and planned, and dreamed together. He locked the door, and after going over the cases, concerning which he had certain requests to make, and a few suggestions as to methods of procedure, they talked as old comrades. Lincoln asked his partner if he wanted any office, and, if so, to name it. Herndon wanted no office, except that of bank examiner which he then held, and Lincoln said he would speak to Richard Yates, the incoming Governor, in his behalf. Mr. Herndon writes: 1

After these were all disposed of he crossed to the opposite side of the room and threw himself down on the old office sofa, which, after many years of service, had been moved against the wall for support. He lay for a few moments, his face toward the ceiling, without either of us speaking. Presently he inquired, "Billy"- he always called me by that name "how long have we been together?" "Over sixteen years," I answered. "We've never had a cross word during all that time, have we?" to which I returned a vehement, "No, indeed we have not." He then recalled some of the incidents of his early practice and took great pleasure in delineating the ludicrous features of many a law suit on the circuit. It was at this last interview in Springfield that he told me of the efforts that had been made by other lawyers to supplant me in the partnership with him. He insisted that such men were weak creatures, who, to use his own language, "hoped to secure a law practice by hanging to his coat-tail." I never saw him in a more cheerful mood. He gathered up a bundle of books and papers he wished to take with him and started to go; but before leaving he made the strange request that the sign-board which swung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairway should remain. "Let it hang there undisturbed," he said, with a significant lowering of his voice. "Give our clients to understand that the election of a President makes no change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live I'm coming back some time, and then we'll go 1 Abraham Lincoln, by Herndon and Weik, Vol. II, pp. 193-5.

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right on practicing law as if nothing had ever happened." He lingered a moment as if to take a last look at the old quarters, and then passed through the door into the narrow hallway. I accompanied him downstairs. . . . Grasping my hand warmly and with a fervent "Good-bye," he disappeared down the street, and never came back to the office again.

CHAPTER IX

The Later Herndon

I

It is not designed to give a detailed account of the life of Mr. Herndon, but only such part of it as had to do with his great partner and friend. So much of his time, however, was spent first in clearing away misunderstandings of Lincoln before he entered office and afterward, and later in gathering and recording facts for a just and true appraisement of him, that the record is unusually rich. The story has thus a double interest and value, not more for its disclosure of interesting items about Lincoln than for its revelation of the same loyal and self-effacing friend, doing what he could to uphold the hands of his partner while living and standing guard over his memory after death. Such a task was a boon in those lonely later years, when he needed something to divert attention from the going down of the sun.

Hardly had the result of the election been announced than Herndon began a labor which, though unobtrusive and natural, entitles him to our grateful regard. Lincoln, it should be remembered, had never held an executive office, and no one knew what powers he had for such an untried service. His ideas were well known, and his personality had become somewhat familiar through the press, especially in the admirable sketches of him by Scripps and Howells; but his capacity for executive leadership no one knew not even Lincoln himself. Even in ordinary times there would have been some curiosity as to what so inexperienced a man would do, and in view of the startling events which followed in the wake of the election, it was natural that this curiosity should deepen into a profound anxiety. Not only a new man, but a new party was coming into power, and the national sky was dark and angry.