Pages 123-127

SOME INCIDENTS OF W. H. HERNDON’S EARLY LIFE.—HIS
FURTHER MISSTATEMENTS IN REGARD TO LINCOLN.

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In writing of the early life of Abraham Lincoln, I think I had better give a sketch of the early life of William H. Herndon, who was for twenty years a law partner of Mr. Lincoln, and who wrote "Herndon’s Life of Lincoln," contained in two volumes. There are but few persons now living who knew Mr. Herndon as well as I did in the days of his youth. He was a son of Archer G. Herndon, one of the early settlers of Springfield who built and kept one of the first hotels ever erected in that city—the Herndon House. He was a prominent politician and had been elected State Senator, besides holding several other offices at different times. He was a Whig and a warm personal friend of Mr. Lincoln.

While I was carrying the mail I stopped two nights each week at the Herndon House, and there is where I became acquainted with William Herndon. We were about the same age, he being fourteen years old, while I was fifteen, and as we were both of a lively disposition and fond of sport, we spent a great deal of time together, commencing in the year 1832. He possessed one trait of character that many people objected to, and that was the delight he took in playing practical jokes. He did not seem to care how much misery and suffering he caused, so long as he had a little notoriety or fun out of it. In the fall of 1836 my father sent me to the Jacksonville college. A young man named Porter from Chicago was my room mate, but after I had been there about a week Bill Herndon came up to our room and told me that he had come to attend college and wanted to know if I would take him as a room mate, remarking that I was the only student with whom he was acquainted. I told him I was willing if Porter would consent, and Porter said he had not objections if I could furnish him bedding.

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As I had a room to myself and a large bed, I took Herndon in and we bunked together. I noticed he had not brought a trunk with him, and I asked him where his trunk was. He said he had come away from home in a hurry and did not bring it, but that his folks would send it by the next stage. Then he commenced laughing, and I suspected he had been up to some of his old tricks, so I said: "Now, Bill, you have been in some devilment and you had to get away and you must tell us what it is." He said there had been an election for county officers up in Sangamon county and that one of the political parties had paid him $1.50 to take some tickets out to a precinct a few miles from Springfield and heel them among the voters. After he had gone a mile he was overtaken by a young man who had a package of tickets for the opposing party. The young man offered Herndon $1.50 to take his tickets and distribute them among the voters. Herndon accepted the offer and the first creek he came to he soused the tickets in, leaving the men who would have voted that ticket the alternative of writing their tickets or not voting. This act incited the wrath of the parties who had employed him first, so he had come away until the storm blew over. He told the story with such glee and merriment that it was evident he thought he had done something remarkably cute.

Herndon had not been at the college long until it was evident that he was brim full of devilment, and there was scarcely a week during the time he stayed there that he was not cited to appear before the faculty for some misdemeanor. It was not because there was anything bad about him that made him do as he did, but he wanted to gain notoriety and astonish somebody. After he left college he clerked in a store in Springfield for a long time, and the commenced the study of law. He applied himself to his studies, and was about twenty-five years old when he went in with Mr. Lincoln, who was nine years his senior. It was thought a little strange at that time that Mr. Lincoln would take into partnership so young and inexperienced a lawyer as Bill Herndon. But he had his reasons and I think I can come very near guessing some of them. Bill’s father had been a friend to Lincoln for a great many years and was a very influential man in

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Sangamon county. He had always helped Lincoln in every way, and it was payment for the kindness that Lincoln took his son in his office. It was a parallel case with that of Bill Berry, who Lincoln took in as partner in his New Salem store. Both fathers wanted their sons in partnership with an honest man.

Then there was another reason. Both of Lincoln’s partners, John T. Stuart and Stephen T. Logan, were, like himself, aspirants for political honors, and he had learned that a law office could not prosper when all the members of the firm wanted to be Congressmen. As Bill was young and showed no disposition to run into politics, he thought it safe to take him into partnership. And Bill did apply himself to business, and, so far as I can learn, gave perfect satisfaction to the firm and to the people for whom he transacted business, up to the time of Lincoln’s death. But for some unaccountable reason, after Mr. Lincoln died he commenced drinking. He had never drank before in his life, and moved out to his farm, seven miles east of Springfield, to get away from the saloons and his drinking companions.

I cannot but think that perhaps it was his ruling passion—to do something surprising—coupled with the habits of his later years, that induced him to make so many extravagant and untruthful statements in his "Life of Lincoln." I will mention a few of them. For instance, his statement that on his trip to New Orleans Lincoln bored a hole in the bottom of the flat boat to let the water out of course is untrue. He says Lincoln tried to drive some hogs onto the flatboat and when they would not go he sewed up their eyes so that they couldn’t see where they were going, when the fact is there were no hogs taken on the boat, it being loaded with produce. He also says that Lincoln weighed 240 pounds when he lived in New Salem and could lift 1,000 pounds, and had been known to lift a barrel of whiskey by the chimes and drink out of the bung-hole; that after he bought the store in New Salem he bought a second, then a third, and tried to borrow money to buy the fourth, when not a dollar had been paid on any of them. The facts are Lincoln never weighed over 175 pounds in his life; was never known to take a drink of liquor out of anything, and never purchased but one store, and paid for that.

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Herndon also said that the mail was carried through New Salem in a four-horse coach, and that the postage on letters was five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five cents. The mail was carried on horseback and I road the horse and the postage on letters was 6¼, 12½, 18¾, and 25 cents, according to the distance they were carried. He says the Rutledge tavern, where Lincoln boarded, was a one-story house with four rooms, when in fact it was a two-story eight-room house. I only make these statements to show that he knew nothing of what he was writing; that it was all guess work, and very poor guess work at that.

The cruelest and most outrageous statement, however, in Herndon’s book is the story of Lincoln breaking his engagement to Miss Mary Todd. He says that on the 1st day of January, 1841, careful preparations had been made at the Edwards mansion for the wedding. The house underwent the customary renovation, the furniture was properly arranged, the rooms neatly decorated, the supper prepared and the guests invited. The latter assembled on the evening in question and waited in expectant pleasure the interesting ceremony of the marriage. The bride, bedecked in veil and silk gown, and nervously toying with the flowers in her hair, sat in the adjoining room. Nothing was lacking but the groom. For some strange reason he had been delayed. An hour passed and the guests, as well as the bride, were becoming restless. But they were all doomed to disappointment. Another hour passed and messengers were sent out over town, each returning with the same report. It became apparent that Lincoln, one of the principals in the little drama, had purposely failed to appear. The bride in grief dispersed the guests, who quietly and wonderingly withdrew; the lights in the Edwards mansion were blown out and darkness settled over all for the night. After daylight and after a persistent search Lincoln’s friend found him. Restless, gloomy, miserable, desperate, he seemed an object of pity. His friends, fearing a tragic termination, watched him closely in their rooms day and night. Knives, razors and every instrument that could be used for self destruction were removed from his reach.

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Now how any man can have the audacity to fabricate such a mass of false hoods as the above story and put them in a book is beyond my comprehension. There is not a word of truth in it. Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd were engaged at one time, but the wedding was put off one year by mutual consent, as Mr. Lincoln wanted to get his financial affairs in a little better condition before he took a wife.

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