Several incidents in Lincoln's early career earned him the title of
"honest," confirmed by his uncommon conduct as a lawyer; [Footnote: The
Honest Lawyer. It is said that he was amused by the conjunction, which
he observed, to an adviser who turned him into the legal field, was
rather a novelty. He thought of the story of the countryman who saw a
stranger by the God's acre, staring at a gravestone, without however
any emotion on his face to betray he was a mourner. On the contrary,
the man wore a puzzled smile, which piqued him to inquire the cause.
"Relative of yours?" asked the native.
"No, not at all, except through Adam. But," reading the epitaph, "'X.,
an honest man, and a lawyer.' Why, how did they come to bury those
_two_ men in one grave?'"] but a principal event was in connection with
his postmastership. It was in 1833. After renouncing the position, he
removed to Springfield to take up the study of the law. An agent from
the Post-office Department called on him to settle his accounts;
through some oversight he had been left undisturbed for some years. He
was living with a Mr. Henry, who kept a store, anterior to his lodging
in Mr. Speed's double-bedded room. As he was poverty-stricken and had
been so since quitting home. Mr. Henry, hearing that a matter of
fifteen or twenty dollars was due the government, was about to loan it,
when Lincoln, not at all disquieted, excused himself to the man from
headquarters to go over to his boarding-house. Usually when a debtor
thus eclipses himself the official expects to learn he is a defaulter
and has "taken French leave," as was said on the border. But the
ex-postmaster immediately came over, and, producing an old blue woolen
sock, such as field-hands wore, poured out coin, copper and silver, to
the exact amount of the debit. Much as the poor adventurer needed cash
in the interval, the temptation had not even struck him to use the
trust--the government funds. He said to partner Herndon he had promised
his mother never to use another's money.
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