abusing Lovejoy, the abolitionist, then just elected to Congress for the first time: and all members of his coterie would echo his derunciations:-they had to.

"I don't see the sense of this persistent abuse of Lovejoy," said Swett, in his manly way; "if he errs at all, it is on the right side." A blank silence fell on the crowd. The Judge was mad, and every one knew it: and after Swett went out, he abused him for half an hour. And for such and similar reasons, Swett could not long remain in leading strings to Davis.

He had a prodigious ambition and an earnest desire for wealth and position. In consequence, he kept a close eye on every public man in Illinois who had started the race of life with, and had distanced him, either in the amassing of wealth, or of honors. His bete noir in McLean County was Gridley: Oh! my: but he did hate him. Gridley had got rich-probably richer than Davis: and he would not pay needed deference to him.

"You don't call that law, you are talking to the jury, "do you?" said the Judge. "My clients hired me to try this “case, and if we need your help, we will call on you," retorted Gridley. "All right: I'll instruct the jury directly; and "then we'll see who rules this court," rejoined the Judge. He used to wonder how Gridley and Matteson (the Governor) could get so rich; and over and over again, he declared it could not have been honestly done; altho', at the same time, he was worth a million; and all honestly obtained, at that.

The Judge was born in Cecil County, Maryland, on March 9th, 1815. His people were rigid Episcopalians and he received his academical education at the Episcopal College at Gambier, Ohio: then in charge of the celebrated Bishop Chase: graduating at the early age of seventeen and a half years. He thence commenced the study of law at Lenox, Massachusetts, and afterward attended the law school at New Haven, Conn., where he graduated in the Fall of 1835.

He was tall, slim and very shy and bashful: while at Lenox, he had became engaged to a Miss Sarah Walker, daughter of the Circuit Judge of that Circuit: and their wedding was to take place as soon as, and whenever, the Judge, could get established as a lawyer, with the ability to maintain a wife and so he betook himself to what was then, the wild western frontier, charged with the duty of founding a home for himself and his affianced.

He first settled at Tremont, then the county seat of Tazewell county. This village, now so insignificant, was then a place of much consequence; and many leading men resided there at that time, among whom may be mentioned, Ira T. Munn and T. J. S. Flint, afterward leading warehousemen of Chicago: Dr. C. H. Ray, the most brilliant editor that Chicago ever had: Col. Josiah L. James and his son. Benjamin, father of the actor: also Senator Cullom. And it was at Tremont that the correspondence between Lincoln and Shields, preliminary to the duel, took place.

The Judge made little headway here: it was too advanced for a novitiate in the law: and after experiencing the pangs of hope deferred for about one year, he shook the dust of that place off his feet, and started out in a search for a locality more promising to him. Among other places that he visited was Decatur, and while there he contracted a spell of typhoid fever which prostrated him for some weeks, and after he recovered, he commenced to grow into the condition of obesity so well known.

Finally, however, he settled at Bloomington, then an extremely new and primitive town, succeeding to the practice of Jesse W. Fell, who engaged in other pursuits. It was "root hog or die" with the Judge: his expectant bride was waiting for him to found a home for them; and he was obliged to assume a boldness not natural, and hustle for business. His progress was slow but sure. He discarded all "Genius licks" and flights of oratory (having vainly tried both) and went into collecting claims-buying tax titles-set

tling estates, and the like prosaic business, and trading in land; in all of which he exhibited great shrewdness, and displayed great energy.

Had

In 1838, he married; and in 1844, he was elected to the legislature and two years thereafter, he was defeated for the State Senate by one John Moore, a wagon-maker-a defeat which the Judge took to heart, for he was very sensitive indeed. In 1847, he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention, in which body he sought very earnestly to prescribe very economical salaries, insisting upon $600 a year as the salary for the Circuit Judges, a remarkable proposition, in view of the fact that the Judge of his Circuit was obliged to travel by private conveyance over a geographical fourth of the whole State; and hold court twice a year in fourteen counties, and pay his own expenses. the Judge's proposal been adopted, no one but a wealthy man could have taken the place: however, one thousand dollars was the amount agreed on; and in the following year Davis himself succeeded Judge Treat-no competitor appearing: and for fourteen consecutive years he was the Judge of his Circuit, starting with fourteen counties, one of which contained the capital of the State, and ultimately being reduced to five. In his Circuit, there practiced at different times, McDougall, afterward Senator from California; Baker, afterward Senator from Oregon; Walker, afterward Senator from Wisconsin; Douglas, then Senator from Illinois; Voorhees, afterward Senator from Indiana; Usher, afterward Secretary of the Interior; besides Lincoln, Judge Logan, Stuart, Benedict, Gridley, Swett, Hannah, Dickey, O. L. Davis, and many other lawyers of eminence.

Davis was a good Circuit Judge:-he disdained techni calities, sharp practice, "the law's delay and the insolence of office:" and aimed at practical and just results in the shortest mode: and his common sense and good judgment led to a general habit of submitting cases to him with no intervention of a jury: and his adjudications gave as general satis

faction as and evoked fewer appeals than, those of any other Judge in the State.

His social qualities on the Circuit were of the most charming character; every evening that we were not invited out, the Judge had a social reunion in his room, from which he excluded all whom he did not want, and at which he made every one whom he did include, entirely at ease. The star performer was Lincoln, but there were many others of considerable talent.

The "Davis" coterie was not strictly confined to lawyers: editors, local statesmen, bankers, merchants, physicians and farmers, were included. Whom the Judge wanted, he, somehow, got: whom he did not want, he fired out or froze out. His ways were sui generis and incomprehensible.

He possessed an inordinate ambition: and in the days when I first knew him, had a smothered ambition to go to Congress. Had he asserted his wish, he might have had a large following, but he was too proud-spirited to do so, and, besides, his Circuit and influence extended into three several districts.

And the Judge was never publicly mentioned for Congress till 1858; and Lovejoy had, by that time, become altogether too popular to brook any opposition in that district.

It was very unsafe for any lawyer to express any dissatisfaction with the Judge's opinions or indicate his purpose to go to the Supreme Court: he considered any dissent from his adjudications as a personal affront.

Swett and I were once trying a little case, when we thought the Judge was prejudiced against our side of the case, and Swett excepted to a ruling; the Judge was wrathy, and gave Swett a terrible scathing: and I was once trying a railway case, and took occasion to exercise the ordinary prerogative of taking an exception to a ruling: "Of course," said the Judge with an expression of perfect contempt.

Lincoln had a way of excepting with so much grace and

deference, and so apologetically, that the Judge was rather flattered by it.

He didn't care for forms or appearances: if he knew he was right, that was sufficient for him: for instance, he entered, and afterward sold considerable land in our county: and had a necessity to sue some of the notes given for deferred payments: so he sent them to me and I brought suit: when court sat, and he gave the first call to the docket, he did not call these cases at all: but at a convenient season, when it came time to adjourn court, he did not adjourn, but remained on the bench until everybody filed out, except the Clerk and Sheriff, he busying himself reading some court papers.

Then I arose, and called up the case of "Davis vs. Smith." "Well," said the Judge, nonchalantly, "what is wanted?" "Default on a note." "Has the defendant been served in time and no appearance?" asked he. "Yes, your Honor, all is regular." "Mr. Sheriff, call John Smith."

"Jaw Smy-Jaw Smy-Jaw Smy," said the Sheriff perfunctorily. No answer.

"Judgment by default: clerk assess damages," said the Judge, and went on with his reading a decent length of time, and then formally adjourned court. There was no pre-arrangement at all about this. I instinctively knew what the Judge wanted and how he wanted it done; and he instinctively knew how to play his part, and how I would play mine: and no one in all Champaign County knew that the Judge had really rendered judgment in his own case, but himself, the clerk, Sheriff and myself. Could he not have accomplished it thus he must necessarily have brought another judge there to enter these formal judgments or sent them to another circuit by change of venue. As there was no inherent wrong in this, the Judge didn't care for its appearance -provided it could be done in the sly way it was done.

By reason of a pressure on him on account of his pri vate business; he used frequently to get Lincoln to hold