154 significant railroad case: This account of the Barret case is drawn from the admirable monograph by William D. Beard, "'I Have Labored Hard to Find the Law': Abraham Lincoln for the Alton and Sangamon Railroad," Illinois Historical Journal 85 (Winter 1992): 209222. A shorter commentary, together with pertinent doc.u.ments, has been published as Barret v. Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company, Illinois Supreme Court, December Term 1851 (Springfield, Ill: Abraham Lincoln a.s.sociation, 1989). This was not Lincoln's first railroad case. In 1849 he had appeared on behalf of the plaintiff in John B. Watson v. Sangamon & Morgan Railroad (HWC, LC).

155 two minor cases: The first was Houser v. Illinois Central Railroad, McLean County Circuit Court, Apr. 15, 1853 (Lincoln Legal Papers). The second is discussed in Duff, A Lincoln, p. 210.

155 "got up in the State": CW, 2:202.

155 "'count me in'": CW, 2:205. In 1854, James F. Joy, agent of the Illinois Central Railroad, urged the company to employ a lobbyist at Springfield for a retainer or salary of $1,000 a year, and he recommended an unnamed man who would be "a valuable ally and a dangerous opponent in any matter before the Legislature." Pratt, Personal Finances, pp. 4849. Some historians believe that Lincoln was the man retained. I think this is doubtful, because in correspondence subsequent to this date Lincoln repeatedly had to ask to be retained in cases involving the railroad.

156 for the Illinois Central: Albert A. Woldman, Lawyer Lincoln (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936), pp. 165169, offers a full account of this case.

156 and South Carolina: Lincoln's brief is in Emanuel Hertz, Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931), 2:675677, where, however, beginning with the third paragraph on p. 677, it is confused with Lincoln's 1856 opinion on land t.i.tles in Beloit, Wisconsin. Cf. CW, 2:336339.

156 "such a claim": Herndon's Lincoln, 2:352.

156 steamers over shoals: CW, 2:3236. With the help of Walter Davis, a Springfield cabinetmaker, Lincoln built an elaborate model of this invention. Wayne C. Temple, Lincoln's Connections with the Illinois & Michigan Ca.n.a.l, His Return from Congress in '48, and His Invention (Springfield: Illinois Bell, 1986), pp. 3536, 5458.

157 "its territorial limits": Register, Dec. 20, 1851.

157 "clear and uninterrupted": Journal, Jan. 28, 1852.

157 "of the Northwest": CW, 2:415.

157 for the railroad: See the excellent account in Duff, A Lincoln, chap. 20.

157 American legal thought: John P. Frank, Lincoln as a Lawyer (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), pp. 171172.

157 "a case lawyer": WHH, monograph on "Lincoln as Lawyer Politician and Statesman," HWC.

158 his family life: Benjamin P. Thomas, "Lincoln and the Courts, 18541861," Abraham Lincoln a.s.sociation Papers, 1933 (Springfield, Ill.: Abraham Lincoln a.s.sociation, 1934), pp. 5962.

158 edge of hysteria: Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 118120, offers a sympathetic account.

158 "Bob and I": WHH, interview with James Gourley, undated [1866], copy, Lamon MSS, HEH.

158 with her own: William Dodd Chenery, in Register, Feb. 27, 1938.

159 "laugh at her": WHH, interview with James Gourley, [1866], copy, Lamon MSS, HEH.

159 grew in crooked: Ruth Painter Randall, Lincoln's Sons (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1955), is an affectionate portrait of the Lincoln children.

159 "hot house plants": WHH to Jesse W. Weik, Jan. 6, 1886, HWC.

159 "hen pecked": Milton Hay to Mary Hay, Apr. 6, 1862, Stuart-Hay MSS, ISHL.

159 them fell out: WHH to J. W. Weik, Nov! 19, 1885, HWC.

159 "get too tired?": Randall, Lincoln's Sons, p. 41.

160 "thought it smart": WHH to J. W. Weik, Feb. 18, 1887, HWC.