[i-42] William H. Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner, relates (Herndon, i, 100): “He was a long time meeting these claims, even as late as 1848 sending to me from Washington portions of his salary as Congressman to be applied on the unpaid remnant of the Berry and Lincoln indebtedness. But in time he extinguished it all, even to the last penny.”
According to Nicolay (36): “It was not until his return from Congress, seventeen years after the purchase of the store, that he finally relieved himself of the last installment of his ‘national debt.’ ”
[i-43] Several decades thereafter, when reference was made in President Lincoln’s hearing to the large tracts of valuable land acquired by Surveyor-General Edward F. Beale, in California, the Executive may be said to have suffered no twinges of conscience if he remarked, as was reported: “Yes, they say Beale is monarch of all he surveyed.”
[i-44] Henry McHenry, in Herndon, i, 113.
[i-45] The Grigsby affair. (Master, 16-17.)
[i-46] Frank E. Stevens, in Magazine of History, February, 1905, pp. 86-90.
[i-47] William G. Greene, who was present, so quotes Lincoln; but Lamon (111) and Stevens (Black Hawk, 283) report him to have said: “Boys, the man actually threw me once fair, broadly so; and the second time, this very fall, he threw me fairly, though not so apparently so.”
[i-48] Magazine of History, February, 1905, pp. 86-90. See also Stevens’s Black Hawk, 281-83; Oldroyd, 516-17; Browne, 112-13; Lamon, 109-12; Herndon, i, 87-88; Nicolay and Hay, i, 94; Thayer, 239-40; Lincoln and Douglas, 194a-194b; Master, 39-40.
[i-49] The whole experience left a deep impression in Lincoln’s mind. After his first nomination to the Presidency, he received one day a delegation of college men, among whom was Professor Risdon M. Moore, the son of Jonathan, that quondam referee.
“Which of the Moore families do you belong to?” inquired the candidate, with a twinkle of the eye. “I have a grudge against one of them.”