t
along in life than those of later days; that is to say, for the
rough-and-tumble life they were better able to take care of themselves
than the lawyers of a more recent date have been, as a general rule.

Judge Stephen T. Logan was, I think, the best lawyer that I have
ever known in Illinois. He went to Illinois at an early age and
lived there until his death; he had attained the age of a little
more than eighty years before he died. He was purely a lawyer.
I think I never knew another lawyer who could so everlastingly ruin
a man who undertook to misrepresent the truth. He seemed to
understand intuitively whether a man was trying to tell the truth
or was lying; if the latter, his words would so effectually be torn
to pieces that they could be of no earthly value. But he was not
an adept as a politician. He ran for Congress at one time against
a man named Thomas L. Harris, and was beaten. He also ran later
for Judge of the Supreme Court, and was beaten. This defeat was
not his fault, however, as the community was a strongly Democratic
one. I recall a story current in those days, to the effect that
some man who had recently come from the east inquired, while talking
with him, "By the way, Judge, didn't you run for the Supreme Court
last year?" In his squeaky voice, the judge replied, "No; I hardly
walked."

But the judge was a true man in every respect,--honest, faithful
to his friends, and fearless in doing whatever he believed to be
right. He felt, I think, a little bit disappointed that President
Lincoln did not appoint him instead of Davis a Judge of the Supreme
Court.

I came to Washington and saw Mr. Lincoln in Judge Logan's behalf
without any suggestion that I do so from Logan or any one else,
but simply because I believed that the President ought to appoint
him on the Supreme Bench in preference to any other man in the
State.

Logan was a better lawyer than Davis; but Davis was an abler
politician than Logan. I have always felt that in view of the fact
that Lincoln and Logan had been partners earlier, and also neighbors
and close friends, he ought to have nominated Logan instead of
Davis. Davis, Logan, and Browning were all well qualified for the
Supreme Court, all of them friends of Lincoln, and all Whigs.
Lincoln had to make the choice, and I think the selection was
influenced by Davis's great assistance in securing his nomination.

Judge Logan was also a close Whig friend of my father, and