cted over him by a majority of about thirty-eight thousand. He
imagined, so I have heard, that he was going to beat me, and was
considerably surprised at his failure to do so.

He died only a few years ago, at an advanced age. His first wife
was a sister of Dr. Jayne, an excellent man, and, I am glad to add,
he and I are warm personal friends. I am very sorry to say, though,
that his children, I believe, are all gone, as are mine.

There were other men who had risen to prominence in Illinois, of
whom I wish to write, and some who were then new upon the stage of
public life, whom I knew and who subsequently achieved distinction.
I have already postponed my reminiscences of Mr. Lincoln to a later
chapter than I could wish, but in point of time we have now come
to the year of his nomination and election to the Presidency of
the United States, and the beginning of a career which was to be
finished in the course of only a little over four years.

The reference to my old friend Doctor William Jayne reminds me that
I should say something of my Springfield friends,--some living,
but many dead. It is to these friends that I am indebted for my
success in public life, and they have generally loyally supported
me, although friends in other parts of the State have been quite
as loyal and devoted to my interests when I have been a candidate
for high public office.

In the days of Lincoln, I do not believe that there ever was a
community that contained so many really splendid men, men who were
so well fitted to fill any place in the State or Nation, as did
Springfield. I can refer to only a few of those of State and
National renown. If I have overlooked some whom I should have
mentioned, I hope I shall be pardoned.

First of all comes Lincoln. From time to time, as I have written
these recollections, I have spoken of him. I will later give my
estimate of Douglas, who, while not a citizen of Springfield, spent
a great deal of time there as a member of the Supreme Court, as a
member of the Legislature, and on legal, political, and social
affairs. In the last-mentioned connection he at one time was a
rival for the hand of Mary Todd, afterwards Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
I have thought and written something of Stephen T. Logan, and to
my own old law partner, Milton Hay, I refer in other parts of these
recollections. There were no better lawyers in their day.

William H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, was a capable lawyer
als