and by the customs of the bar it was his right to make the argument,
courteously offered the opportunity to Stanton, who promptly accepted.
It was a great disappointment to Lincoln to miss thus the opportunity
of arguing with Reverdy Johnson. Neither did Stanton know what he
missed. Nor did Johnson know what a narrow escape he had.

This chapter will not be complete without making mention of Lincoln's
professional kindness to the poor and unfortunate. Those who could find
no other friends were sure to find a friend in Lincoln. He would freely
give his services to the needy. At that time the negro found it hard to
get help, friendship, justice. Though Illinois was a free state, public
opinion was such that any one who undertook the cause of the negro was
sure to alienate friends. Lincoln was one of the few who never
hesitated at the sacrifice.

A young man, a free negro living in the neighborhood, had been employed
as cabin boy on a Mississippi river steamboat. Arriving at New Orleans,
he went ashore without a suspicion of what the law was in a slave
state. He was arrested for being on the street after dark without a
pass, thrown into jail, and fined. Having no money to pay the fine, he
was liable to be sold into slavery, when his mother, in her distress,
came to Lincoln for help. Lincoln sent to the governor to see if there
was no way by which this free negro could be brought home. The governor
was sorry that there was not. In a towering wrath Lincoln exclaimed:
"I'll have that negro back soon, or I'll have a twenty years'
excitement in Illinois until the governor does have a legal and
constitutional right to do something in the premises!"

He had both. He and his partner sent to New Orleans the necessary money
by which the boy was released and restored to his mother. The twenty