unsystematic, not to say slipshod. Even after he became president his
lack of system was at times the despair of his secretaries.(6) Herndon,
who succeeded Logan as his partner, and who admired both men, has a
broad hint that Logan and Lincoln were not always an harmonious firm.
A clash of political ambitions is part explanation; business methods
another. "Logan was scrupulously exact and used extraordinary care in
the preparation of papers. His words were well chosen, and his style
of composition was stately and formal."(7) He was industrious and very
thrifty, while Lincoln had "no money sense." It must have annoyed, if it
did not exasperate his learned and formal partner, when Lincoln signed
the firm name to such letters as this: "As to real estate, we can
not attend to it. We are not real estate agents, we are lawyers. We
recommend that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton,
a trust-worthy man and one whom the Lord made on purpose for such
business."(8)

Superficial observers, then and afterward, drew the conclusion that
Lincoln was an idler. Long before, as a farm-hand, he had been called
"bone idle."(9) And of the outer Lincoln, except under stress of need,
or in spurts of enthusiasm, as in the earlier years with Logan, this
reckless comment had its base of fact. The mighty energy that was in
Lincoln, a tireless, inexhaustible energy, was inward, of the spirit; it
did not always ramify into the sensibilities and inform his outer life.
The connecting link of the two, his mere intelligence, though constantly
obedient to demands of the outer life, was not susceptible of great
strain except on demand of the spiritual vision. Hence his attitude
toward the study of the law. It thrilled and entranced him, called into
play all his powers--observation, reflection, intelligence--just so
long as it appeared in his imagination a vast creative effort of the
spiritual powers, of humanity struggling perilously to see justice done