HIS LIFE AND WORK 



members of this legal bodyguard. Abraham 

 Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Edwin M. Stan- 

 ton, Peter H. Watson, George Harding, and 

 Congressman H. Winter Davis. 



It was a battle of giants. Greek met Greek 

 with weapons of eloquence. But Stanton out- 

 classed his great co-debaters in a speech of 

 unanswerable power which unfortunately was 

 not reported. The speech so vividly im- 

 pressed McCormick that in his next law- 

 suit he at once engaged Stanton. It awoke 

 the brain of Lincoln, as he afterwards admitted; 

 and drove him back to a more comprehensive 

 study of the law. It gave Lincoln so high 

 an opinion of Stanton's ability that, when he 

 became President several years later, he 

 chose Stanton to be his Secretary of War. 

 And it gripped judge and jury with such 

 effect that McCormick lost his case. It was 

 a wonderful speech. 



Abraham Lincoln, who made no speech at 

 all, was the one who derived the most benefit in 

 the end from this lawsuit. It not only aroused 

 his ambitions, but gave him his first big fee 



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