One of Mr. Lincoln’s warm friends was Dr. Robert Boal, of Lacon,
Illinois. Telling of a visit he paid to the White House soon after Mr.
Lincoln’s inauguration, he said: “I found him the same Lincoln as a
struggling lawyer and politician that I did in Washington as President
of the United States, yet there was a dignity and self-possession about
him in his high official authority. I paid him a second call in the
evening. He had thrown off his reserve somewhat, and would walk up and
down the room with his hands to his sides and laugh at the joke he was
telling, or at one that was told to him. I remember one story he told to
me on this occasion.
“Tom Corwin, of Ohio, had been down to Alexandria, Va., that day and
had come back and told Lincoln a story which pleased him so much that
he broke out in a hearty laugh and said: ‘I must tell you Tom Corwin’s
latest. Tom met an old man at Alexandria who knew George Washington, and
he told Tom that George Washington often swore. Now, Corwin’s father had
always held the father of our country up as a faultless person and told
his son to follow in his footsteps.
“‘“Well,” said Corwin, “when I heard that George Washington was addicted
to the vices and infirmities of man, I felt so relieved that I just
shouted for joy.”’”
“CATCH ‘EM AND CHEAT ‘EM.”
The lawyers on the circuit traveled by Lincoln got together one night
and tried him on the charge of accepting fees which tended to lower
the established rates. It was the understood rule that a lawyer should
accept all the client could be induced to pay. The tribunal was known as
“The Ogmathorial Court.”
Ward Lamon, his law partner at the time, tells about it:
“Lincoln was found guilty and fined for his awful crime against the
pockets of his brethren of the bar. The fine he paid with great good
humor, and then kept the crowd of lawyers in uproarious laughter until
after midnight.
“He persisted in his revolt, however, declaring that with his consent
his firm should never during its life, or after its dissolution, deserve
the reputation enjoyed by those shining lights of the profession, ‘Catch
‘em and Cheat ‘em.’”