vis, the presiding judge of
the district. As is well known, he was the intimate friend of Mr.
Lincoln, and the latter was often his guest during attendance upon
the courts at Bloomington. At that early day, the term of court
in few of the counties continued longer than a week, so that much of
the time of the judge and the lawyers who travelled the circuit
with him was spent upon horseback. When it is remembered that there
were then no railroads, but few bridges, a sparse population,
and that more than half the area embraced in that district was
unbroken prairie, the real significance of riding the circuit will
fully appear. It was of this period that the late Governor
Ford, speaking of Judge Young,--whose district extended from Quincy,
upon the Mississippi River to Chicago,--said: "He possesses in
rare degree one of the highest requisites for a good circuit judge,
--he is an excellent horseback rider."

At the period mentioned there were few law-books in the State.
The monster libraries of later days had not yet arrived. The
half-dozen volumes of State Reports, together with the Statutes
and a few leading text-books, constituted the lawyer's library.
To an Illinois lawyer upon the circuit, a pair of saddle-bags was an
indispensable part of his outfit. With these, containing the
few books mentioned and a change or two of linen, and supplied with
the necessary horse, saddle and bridle, the lawyer of the pioneer days
was duly equipped for the active duties of his calling. The lack
of numerous volumes of adjudicated cases was, however, not an
unmixed evil. Causes were necessarily argued upon principle. How
well this conduced to the making of the real lawyer is well known.
The admonition, "Beware the man who reads but one book," is of deep
significance. The complaint to-day is not of scarcity, but that
"of the making of many books there is no end." Professor Phelps
is authority for the statement that "it is easy to find single
opinions in which more authorities are cited than were mentioned by
Marshall in the whole thirty years of his unexampled judicial life;
and briefs that contain more cases than Webster referred to in all
the arguments he ever delivered."

The lawyers of the times whereof we write were, almost without
exception, politicians--in close touch with the people, easy of
approach, and obliging to the last degree. Generally speaking,
a lawyer's office was as open to the public as the Courthouse