pretension and to bring every man to his place, sometimes also to escape taking a hard fact too hardly, that what we now call “American humor,” with its peculiar native flavor, was born.  To this it is matter of tradition that Lincoln contributed liberally.  He liked neighborly chat and discussion; and his fondness for political debate, and his gifts in tale and jest, made him the most popular man in every “store” that he entered.  It is commonly believed that the effect of this familiarity with coarse talk did not afterward disappear, so that he never became fastidious in language or in story.  But apologists of this habit are doubtless correct in saying that vulgarity in itself had no attraction for him; it simply did not repel him, when with it there was a flavor of humor or a useful point.  Apparently it simply meant nothing to him; a mental attitude which is not difficult of comprehension in view of its origin.[31]

Some of the most picturesque and amusing pages of Ford’s “History of Illinois” describe the condition of the bench and bar of these times.[32] “Boys, come in, our John is going to hold court,” proclaimed the sheriff; and the “boys” loitered into the barroom of the tavern, or into a log cabin where the judge sat on the bed and thus, really from the woolsack, administered “law” mixed with equity as best he knew it.  Usually these magistrates were prudent in guiding the course of practical justice, and rarely summed up the facts lest they should make dangerous enemies, especially in criminal cases; they often refused to state the law, and generally for a very good reason.  They liked best to turn the whole matter over to the jurors, who doubtless “understood the case, and would do justice between the parties.”  The books of the science were scarce, and lawyers who studied them were perhaps scarcer.  But probably substantial fairness in decision did not suffer by reason of lack of sheepskin learning.

Politics for a long while were strictly personal; the elections did not turn upon principles or measures, but upon the popular estimate of the candidates individually.  Political discussion meant unstinted praise and unbounded vilification.  A man might, if he chose, resent a vote against himself as a personal insult, and hence arose much secrecy and the “keep dark” system.  Stump-speaking, whiskey, and fighting were the chief elements of a campaign, and the worst class in society furnished the most efficient backing.[33]

Such was the condition of men and things in the neighborhood where Abraham Lincoln was shaping in the days of his youth.  Yet it was a condition which did not last long; Illinois herself changed and grew as rapidly as any youngster within her borders.  The rate of advance in all that goes to make up what we now regard as a civilized society was astonishing.  Between the time when Lincoln was fifteen and when he was twenty-five, the alteration was so great as to be confusing.  One hardly became familiar with