neighbouring Brown University, where his fellow-students valued his skill
as a writer. Then he studied for the Bar, and he was called to the Bar
three years later, at Springfield, Illinois.

At Springfield, Abraham Lincoln practised as a barrister. Shrewd,
lively, earnest, honest, he grudged help to a rogue. In a criminal case,
when evidence threw unexpected light upon a client's character, Abraham
Lincoln said suddenly to his junior, "Swett, the man is guilty; you
defend him, I can't." In another case, when a piece of rascality in his
client came out, Abraham Lincoln left his junior in possession of the
case and went to his hotel. To the judge, who sent for him, he replied
that he had found his hands were very dirty, and had gone away to get
them clean. Almost immediately after John Hay's call to the Bar at
Springfield he was chosen by Abraham Lincoln, newly made President, to go
with him to Washington. At Washington, Hay acted as Assistant-Secretary,
and was also, in the Civil War, aide-de-camp to President Lincoln.
Throughout that momentous struggle he was actively employed on the side
of the North at the headquarters and on the field of battle. He served
for a time under Generals Hunter and Gillmore, became a Colonel in the
army of the North, and served also as Assistant Adjutant-General. John
Hay had in that struggle three brothers and two brothers-in-law serving
also in the field.

In 1890 there was published, in ten volumes, at New York, by the New York
Century Company, "Abraham Lincoln, a History: by John G. Nicolay and
John Hay." This was, with fresh material inserted, a collection of
chapters that had been published in The Century Magazine from November
1886 to the beginning of 1890. The friends, who worked equally together
upon this large record, said, "We knew Mr. Lincoln intimately before his
election to the Presidency. We came from Illinois to Washington with