Lincoln picked up the saddle-bags, went upstairs, set them down
on the floor, and reappeared a moment later, beaming with
pleasure. "Well, Speed," he exclaimed, "I am moved!" It is seldom
that heartier, truer friendships come to a man than came to
Lincoln in the course of his life. On the other hand, no one ever
deserved better of his fellow-men than he did; and it is pleasant
to know that such brotherly aid as Butler and Speed were able to
give him, offered in all sincerity and accepted in a spirit that
left no sense of galling obligation on either side, helped the
young lawyer over present difficulties and made it possible for
him to keep on in the career he had marked out for himself.
The lawyer who works his way up from a five-dollar fee in a suit
before a justice of the peace, to a five-thousand-dollar fee
before the Supreme Court of his State, has a long and hard path
to climb. Lincoln climbed this path for twenty-five years, with
industry, perseverance, patience--above all, with that
self-control and keen sense of right and wrong which always
clearly traced the dividing line between his duty to his client
and his duty to society and truth. His perfect frankness of
statement assured him the confidence of judge and jury in every
argument. His habit of fully admitting the weak points in his
case gained him their close attention to his strong ones, and
when clients brought him questionable cases his advice was always
not to bring suit.
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