Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1884 — Lincoln, the Peacemaker. [ARTICLE]

Lincoln, the Peacemaker.

Abraham Lincoln, though a successfttl lawyer, was a peacemaker. Juries trusted him, and his common-sense way of putting things gave him great power as an advocate. Yet he frequently advised his clients not to go to law, but to leave their disputes out to arbitrators. The Rev. Dr. Miner, of Trenton, N. J., who was formerly a pastor at Springfield, 111., Mr. Lincoln’s home, told recently the following anecdote: A farmer once said to me: “Do you know why it is that I, who have been a Democrat all my life, am going to vote for Mr. Lincoln ? I will tell you. I once had got into difficulty with a neighbor about the line between our farms. I went to Mr. Lincoln to secure him. “Mr. L. said: ‘Now, if you go on with this, it will cost both of you your farms, and will entail an enmity that will last for generations, and perhaps lead to murder. “ ‘The other man has just been here to engage me. Now I want you two to sit down in my office while i am gone to dinner, and talk it over and try to settle it. And, to secure you from any interruption, I will lock the door.’ He did so, and he did not return all the afternoon. “We two men, finding ourselves shut up together, began to laugh. This put us in a good-humor, and by the time Mr. L. returned the matter was settled.”