He
never would have earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have
won a place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of
the profession has reached its highest perfection, and centuries of
learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a lawyer. Dr.
Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "When should the education
of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least two centuries before it is
born!" and so I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer.
But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population
increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in
Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so
were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries
were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed
the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The
fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and
Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, force
of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech did the
rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning.
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