me a gross personal insult accompanied with a threat.
Lincoln and Colonel Baker, who were both present and were warm personal
and political friends of mine, anticipating that I might be attacked
when I left the State House, came upon the stand a little while before I
concluded my speech and took their station on each side of me. When I
was through, and after my audience had greeted me with three hearty
cheers, each took one of my arms, and Lincoln said to me: 'Linder, Baker
and I are apprehensive that you may be attacked by some of those
ruffians who insulted you from the galleries, and we have come up to
escort you to your hotel. We both think we can do a little fighting, so
we want you to walk between us until we get you to your hotel. Your
quarrel is our quarrel and that of the great Whig party of this nation.
Your speech upon this occasion is the greatest that has been made by any
of us, for which we wish to honor and defend you.' This I consider no
ordinary compliment, coming from Lincoln, for he was no flatterer nor
disposed to bestow praise where it was undeserved. Colonel Baker
heartily concurred in all he said, and between those two glorious men I
left the stand and we marched out of the State House through our
friends, who trooped after us evidently anticipating what Lincoln and
Baker had suggested to me, accompanying us to my hotel."

That Lincoln had an abundance of physical courage, and was well able to
defend himself when necessity demanded, is clear from the incidents just
given. Mr. Herndon, his intimate friend, adds his testimony on this
point. As Lincoln was grand in his good nature, says Mr. Herndon, so he
was grand in his rage. "Once I saw him incensed at a judge for giving an
unfair decision. It was a terrible spectacle. At another time I saw two
men come to blows in his presence. He picked them up separately and
tossed them apart like a couple of kittens. He was the strongest man I
ever knew, and has been known to lift a man of his own weight and throw
him over a worm fence. Once in Springfield the Irish voters meditated
taking possession of the polls. News came down the street that they
would permit nobody to vote but those of their own party. Mr. Lincoln
seized an axe-handle from a hardware store and went alone to open a way
to the ballot-box. His appearance intimidated them, and we had neither
threats nor collisions all that day."

An unsuspected side of Lincoln's character was shown, at this pe