Note ii-11 — Chapter II · TRUTH IN LAW

For a few of these stories the reader is referred to Onstot, 20; Stringer, i, 218; McClure’s Yarns, 380; Gallaher, 46-47; Lincolnics, 30-31; MacChesney, 299-300; Depew’s Speech, February 12, 1909, pp. 6-7; Dr. George M. Angell, in Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph, February 12, 1909.

Lincoln was not the only great lawyer concerning whom such anecdotes might be told. The eminent New England advocate, Jeremiah Mason, is said to have been equally successful in bringing about compromises. “Mr. Mason,” writes one who knew him well, “magnified his position by exerting all his influence to prevent litigation, or the commencement of suits upon mere quibbles, or for the purpose of procrastination, or to gratify personal vindictiveness, or retaliation. He was eminently a peacemaker, and was instrumental in healing many a wound, and in preventing the useless expenditure of money, by a set of litigants, who were in the habit of annoying (employing?) lawyers to aid them in schemes of malice or revenge.” (John P. Lord, quoted in Hillard’s Memoir and Correspondence of Jeremiah Mason, 46.)