as his wants were supplied—­and they were few and simple—­he seemed to have no further use for money, except in the giving or the lending of it, with no expectation or desire for its return, to those whom he thought needed it more than he.  Debt he abhorred, and under no circumstances would he incur it.  He was abstemious in every respect.  I have heard him say that he did not know the taste of liquor.  At the table he preferred plain food, and a very little satisfied him.

“Under no circumstances would he, as an attorney, take a case he knew to be wrong.  Every possible means was used to get at the truth before he would undertake a case.  More cases, by his advice, were settled without trial than he carried into the courts; and that, too, without charge.  When on one occasion I suggested that he ought to make a charge in such cases, he laughingly answered, ’They wouldn’t want to pay me; they don’t think I have earned a fee unless I take the case into court and make a speech or two.’  When trivial cases were brought to him, such as would most probably be carried no farther than a magistrate’s office, and he could not induce a settlement without trial, he would generally refer them to some young attorney, for whom he would speak a good word at the same time.  He was ever kind and courteous to these young beginners when he was the opposing counsel.  He had a happy knack of setting them at their ease and encouraging them.  In consequence he was the favorite of all who came in contact with him.  When his heart was in a case he was a powerful advocate.  I have heard more than one attorney say that it was little use to expect a favorable verdict in any case where Lincoln was opposing counsel, as his simple statements of the facts had more weight with the jury than those of the witnesses.

“As a student (if such a term could be applied to Mr. Lincoln) one who did not know him might have called him indolent.  He would pick up a book and run rapidly over the pages, pausing here and there.  At the end of an hour—­never, as I remember, more than two or three hours—­he would close the book, stretch himself out on the office lounge, and with hands under his head and eyes shut he would digest the mental food he had just taken.

“In the spring of 1846, war between the United States and Mexico broke out.  Mr. Lincoln was opposed to the war.  He looked upon it as unnecessary and unjust.  Volunteers were called for.  John J. Hardin, who lost his life in that war, and Edward D. Baker, who was killed at Ball’s Bluff during our Civil War—­both Whigs—­were engaged in raising regiments.  Meetings were held and speeches made.  At one of them, after Baker and others had spoken, Lincoln, who was in the audience, was called for, and the call was repeated until at last he ascended the platform.  He thanked the audience for the compliment paid him in the wish they had expressed to hear him talk, and said he would gladly make them a speech if he had anything to say.  But he was not going into the war; and as he was not going himself, he did not feel like telling others to go.  He would simply leave it to each individual to do as he thought his duty called for.  After a few more remarks, and a story ’with a nib to it,’ he bowed himself off the platform.