Lincoln was admitted to the law practise in 1837; he went into
partnership with John F. Stuart. The latter elected to Congress, he
united his legal talents with S. T. Logan's, a union severed in 1843,
as both the associates were aiming to be congressmen also. Not being
nominated, the consolation was in the courts, with Judge Herndon as
partner. It was from this daily frequentation that the latter was
enabled to write a "Life of Lincoln."
An old colored woman came to them for legal aid. Her case was a sad
one. Brought from Kentucky, Lincoln's natal State, by a planter,
Hinkle, he had set her and children free in Indiana, not fostering the
waning oppression. Her son, growing up, had the rashness to venture on
the steamboat down to New Orleans. His position was as bad as that of
an Americanized foreigner returning into a despotic land. He was
arrested and held for sale, having crossed a Louisiana law framed for
such intrusions: a free negro could be sold here as if never out of
bond. There was little time to redeem him, and Lincoln--whose view of
the institution had not been enchanting--seized the opportunity to hit
"and hit hard!" as he said in the same city on beholding a slave sale.
The office was in Springfield, the capital, and the state-house was
over the way. While Lincoln continued to question and console the poor
sufferer, his partner went over to learn of the governor what he could
do in the matter. But there was no constitutional or even legal right
to interfere with the doings of a sovereign State. This omission as
regards humanity stung Lincoln, always tender on that score, and he
excitedly vowed:
"By virtue of freedom for all, I will have that negro back--or a twenty
years' agitation in Illinois, which will afford its governor a legal
and constitutional right to interfere in such premises."
The only way to rescue the unfortunate young man was to make up a purse
and recompense a correspondent at the city below, to obtain the captive
and return him to his mother.
Such cases, of more often fugitive-slave matters, were not uncommon in
the State. Lincoln was already linked with the ultras on the question,
so that it was said by lawyers applied to, afraid as political
aspirants:
"Go to that Lincoln, the liberator; he will defend a fugitive-slave
case!"
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