William Herndon (lawyer)

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William Henry Herndon (born in Kentucky, 1818 - 1891 in Springfield, Illinois) was the law partner and biographer of Abraham Lincoln.

Herndon's family moved from Kentucky to Springfield when he was five. Herndon attended Illinois College from 1836-1837. Following college, he returned to Springfield, where he clerked until 1841, when he went into law practice with Lincoln. Both men were members of the Whig Party and joined the fledgling Republican Party after the dissolution of the Whigs.

Herndon was a much stauncher opponent of slavery than Lincoln and claimed that he helped change Lincoln's views on the subject. He felt that Lincoln acted too slowly against the issue following his election as President. Herndon felt that the only way to rid the country of slavery was "through bloody revolution."

Following Lincoln’s assassination, Herndon began to collect stories of Lincoln’s life from those who knew him and was also critical of Lincoln’s political ambition. Nevertheless, he provided much information about Lincoln which would otherwise have been lost, although some of his stories are met with skepticism. The book, entitled Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, was published in 1889, two years before Herndon’s death.