[iv-28] E. S. Nadal, in Scribner’s Magazine, March, 1906, p. 368.
[iv-29] Herndon, i, 324-25.
[iv-30] That baffling question as to how the value of a lawyer’s services should be arrived at was thus stated in Lincoln’s trial brief: “Are or not the amount of labor, the doubtfulness and difficulty of the question, the degree of success in the result, and the amount of pecuniary interest involved, not merely in the particular case, but covered by the principle decided, and thereby secured to the client, all proper elements, by the custom of the profession to consider in determining what is a reasonable fee in a given case?”
For an answer that may serve, in part, at least, the reader is referred to an opinion, which had been delivered some years previously by Chief Justice John B. Gibson, of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Discussing the fees earned by an attorney in important litigation, he said: “It is not to be doubted that responsibility, in a confidential employment, is a legitimate subject of compensation, and in proportion to the magnitude of the interests committed to the agents.... A lawyer charged with particular preparations for a lawsuit, is not to be made responsible, or paid, as a porter or a shoemaker.” (Pennsylvania Reports, vii, 545-46.)
[iv-31] Lincoln’s attitude in this particular affords another striking contrast to that of David Hoffman, who lays down the rule: “I will charge for my services what my judgment and conscience inform me is my due, and nothing more. If that be withheld, it will be no fit matter for arbitration; for no one but myself can adequately judge of such services, and after they are successfully rendered they are apt to be ungratefully forgotten. I will then receive what the client offers, or the laws of the country may award, but in either case he must never hope to be again my client.”
[iv-32] The most fruitful references on this topic are: Herndon, ii, 21-22; Whitney’s Life, i, 184-85; Hill, 250-54, 261, 316-19; Tarbell, i, 258-60; Works, ii, 288-89; Lincoln as Attorney, passim; Curtis’s Lincoln, 72; Illinois Reports, xvii, 291-99; Koerner, ii, 111-12.
[iv-33] Jesse W. Weik, in Century Magazine, June, 1904, pp. 282, 286; Herndon, i, 251.
[iv-34] Lincoln to Speed, July 4, 1842, in Lamon, 251; Works, i, 219.
[iv-35] Browne, 180-82; Coffin, 123; Gallaher, 31; Hapgood, 85; Jesse W. Weik, in Century Magazine, June, 1904, p. 280.
[iv-36] Four children, in all, were born to Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. They were: Robert Todd, August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846; William Wallace, December 21, 1850; and Thomas, April 4, 1853.