Lincoln would never advise clients into unwise or unjust lawsuits.  He would always sacrifice his own interests, and refuse a retainer, rather than be a party to a case which did not command the approval of his sense of justice.  He was once waited upon by a lady who held a real-estate claim which she desired to have him prosecute, putting into his hands, with the necessary papers, a check for two hundred and fifty dollars as a retaining fee.  Lincoln said he would look the case over, and asked her to call again the next day.  Upon presenting herself, he told her that he had gone through the papers very carefully, and was obliged to tell her frankly that there was “not a peg” to hang her claim upon, and he could not conscientiously advise her to bring an action.  The lady was satisfied, and, thanking him, rose to go.  “Wait,” said Lincoln, fumbling in his vest pocket; “here is the check you left with me.”  “But, Mr. Lincoln,” returned the lady, “I think you have earned that.”  “No, no,” he responded, handing it back to her; “that would not be right.  I can’t take pay for doing my duty.”  To a would-be client who had carefully stated his case, to which Lincoln had listened with the closest attention, he said:  “Yes, there is no reasonable doubt that I can gain your case for you.  I can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars, which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and her children as it does to you.  You must remember that some things that are legally right are not morally right.  I shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice, for which I will charge you nothing.  You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man.  I would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars some other way.”

Senator McDonald states that he saw a jury trial in Illinois, at which Lincoln defended an old man charged with assault and battery.  No blood had been spilled, but there was malice in the prosecution, and the chief witness was eager to make the most of it.  On cross-examination, Lincoln “gave him rope” and drew him out; asked him how long the fight lasted and how much ground it covered.  The witness thought the fight must have lasted half an hour and covered an acre of ground.  Lincoln called his attention to the fact that nobody was hurt, and then with an inimitable air asked him if he didn’t think it was “a mighty small crop for an acre of ground.”  The jury rejected the prosecution’s claim.

Many of the stories told of Lincoln at the bar are extremely ridiculous, and represent him in anything but a dignified light.  But they are a part of the character of the man, and should be given wherever there is reason to suppose they are genuine.  Besides, they are usually full of a humor that is irresistible.  Such an incident is given by the Hon. Lawrence Weldon, Lincoln’s old friend and legal associate in