Wilson, Douglas L., ed.; Davis, Rodney O., ed.; McHenry, Henry. '9. Henry McHenry to William H. Herndon (interview)' in 'Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln' . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. [format: book], [genre: interview]. Permission: University of Illinois Press
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=herndon014.html

work and dug down in the ground — & found about 6 or 8 inches of the original stake, sharpened & cut with an axe and at the bottom a piece of charcoal, put there by Rector — who surveyed the whole County — . ^[4] When the supposed Corner was struck and when Lincoln's survey was demonstrated by figures & well as Material Evidences — namely the original stake & charcoal, all parties without a jar were Completely satisfied & that corner stands there this day a monument of all mens titles in the whole section of the County round about. The Black Hawk war was in 1831 & 2. ^[5] Lincoln went into army — Volunteers — as a private and was Elected by the Company Captain of that Company: All the men in the Company — as well as the Regiment to which he & they belonged loved him well — almost worshipped him. I heard him making his first speech after returning from the Black Hawk war. He brushed up his hair from his tall dark forhead and said: "Gentlemen I have just returned from the Campaign My personal appearance is rather shabby & dark. I am almost as red as those men I have been chasing through the prairies & forests on the Rivers of Illinois — "

Lincoln in Politics was a whig: he became a candidate for the Legislature in 1832: he was defeated: he was a candidate in 1834, & was Elected. In 1836 he was Elected again & Elected and about the years 1835 or 6 he went from New Salem to the City of Springfield.

During all this time — during all these years — I never knew Mr Lincoln to run a horse race — it then being Common, if not universal over the whole County. I never knew him to drink a drop of liquor — or get drunk — or gamble or play Cards — nor fool nor seduce Women. I wish to say that he never sold liquor — nor dealt in it, he being opposed in his New Salem nor other places whilst in Menard County — or Sangamon. When he was a candidate for small or large offices I always voted for him — his Presidential terms both included and his virtues & honesty &c were the main reasons for so doing.

In 1859 I again renewed an intimate acquaintance in Sangamon. I there Employed him together with W H Herndon to attend to a suit for me involving many serious & knotty questions of law in relation to land — I had put up a house on the disputed land and I was then in possession of the land and living in the house — . Under false impressions — wrong views of my lines of my land; he told me to move out and give my opponent the possession of the land. I remarked somewhat angrily — I will be — d — d if I do: Mr. Lincoln then in the same spirit of momentary anger said — "I will be d — d if I attend to your suit, if you don't — I then remarked to him — "I will employ & other man then — You are not all the Lawyers in Springeld". Mr Lincoln — "Well — Henry, let us have a fair understanding of these things — we never differed before". I then sketched to him on what precise part of the land this house stood on, by a drawing on a piece of paper, he drawing it in sections. When he found out the precise facts of the Case, he

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