The next year he stumped Massachusetts for "Zach" Taylor and heard Governor Seward deliver his remarkable speech on Slavery which contained this striking utterance:
"Congress has no power to inhibit any duty commanded by God on Mount Sinai or by His Son on the Mount of Olives."
On his return home Lincoln confessed that we had soon to deal with that question.
I was in his office when Herndon said:
"I tell you that slavery must be rooted out."
"What makes you think so?" Mr. Lincoln asked.
"I feel it in my bones," was Herndon's answer.
After that he used to speak with respect of "Bill Herndon's bone philosophy."
His term in Congress having ended, he came back to the law in partnership with William H. Herndon—a man of character and sound judgment. Those days Lincoln wore black trousers, coat and stock, a waistcoat of satin and a Wellington high hat. He was wont to carry his papers in his hat. Mary had wrought a great change in his external appearance.
They used to call him "a dead square lawyer." I remember that once Herndon had drawn up a fictitious plea founded on a shrewd assumption. Lincoln carefully examined the papers.