without making any apology himself made the closing argument. Mr. Lincoln felt the act deeply. He knew it was unprofessional and inexcusable. But his was a nature which suffered in silence and waited for his reward. The counsel separated with no expression of regret or word of apology from Mr. Stanton, and the tall, lank West erner in his ill-fitting clothes returned to his Springfield home. The suit meantime had been carried into the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Stanton made the most careful prepara tions to argue it in that greatest of sublunary tribunals. In due time, a few weeks before the case would be reached, Mr. Lincoln appeared in Mr. Stanton's office with a large bundle of manuscript in loose sheets, which he said were the rough notes of the brief for the coming argument. Mr. Stanton pointed to a pile of his own manuscript intended for the same purpose. Neither made any reference to the occurrences at the trial. Mr. Stanton asked if Mr. Lincoln would permit him to read the views of the case which he had presented, and Mr. Lincoln handed him the bundle. Mr. Stanton be gan to read. For a long time the silence was unbroken, except by the ticking of the clock on Mr. Stanton's desk. At length, without raising his eyes from the page, his right hand was extended to his own pile, it seized an indefinite number of his sheets, was retracted, his remaining hand seized the sheets, tore them into narrow strips and cast them upon the floor. The opera tion was repeated two or three times until a considerable portion of his notes were in fragments. At length Mr. Lincoln inquired what he was doing? He replied that he was destroying waste paper. Then he left his seat, grasped the great hand of the Western advocate and said : " Mr. Lincoln, your preparation so far is admirable. Mine goes into the waste-basket. It is altogether inferior to yours. I wish to finish the read ing of what you have written. If it covers
the whole case, as I have no doubt it does, no one but yourself shall present our side of the case to the Supreme Court; with my consent!" Mr. Lincoln argued the case in the Su preme Court and won a great victory. In 1862 the country was in a peril from which it could only be extricated by a secretary of war with the fierce determination and patriotism of Edwin M. Stanton. Mr. Lin coln knew the man, and while members of his cabinet were hesitating, doubting, fearing, he made Mr. Stanton secretary of war, and Mr. Stanton made himself the greatest war minister of the century. The country is beginning to find out, and an other generation which is able to read his tory without prejudice, will know how great a debt the country owes to Edwin M. Stan ton. I cite these two cases to show the value in our profession of thorough preparation. Thoroughness was the chief element in the character of Mr. Lincoln. His preparation saved the life of the innocent Armstrong, and it brought Mr. Stanton into his cabinet. It were an easy task to show that this ele ment in his character made him president of the United States. He had made but little impression during his first congres sional term. From 1852 until 1858, while the contest was raging on the Kansas bor der, his voice was scarcely heard. But on the day of his nomination for the Senate in Springfield; after by careful study he was master of the subject of slavery, and knew its true place under the Constitution, he amazed and terrified his party, and filled the hearts of good men with joy, by his "divided house" speech — his statement that this government could not perma nently endure, half slave and half free. After this his letters and his speeches were models of English composition. The Get tysburg speech may have been written in the cars, but it was the ripe fruit of long years of careful preparation.
