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.

Herndon's reliability as a Lincoln biographer can be better understood by examining the exact nature of his 20-year relationship with Lincoln. That relationship was entirely professional and less than congenial. Herndon was offended by the behavior of Lincoln's sons in their office, he scorned and publicly insulted Mrs. Lincoln, and he later argued that both Lincoln himself and his mother before him were bastards. Herndon in fact was directly at odds with Lincoln on more than one account.

Early in their partnership, Herndon wrote to Lincoln and argued that President Polk, as commander-in-chief, had the right to wage war against Mexico without the authorization of Congress. On 15 February 1848, Lincoln responded, "... But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood." Lincoln practically suggested that Herndon might be in favor of reverting the nation to the tyranny of monarchy from which it had been freed less than a century before, an accusation which likely was received as an insult.

While Lincoln lived, Herndon was never invited to the Lincoln home, either in Springfield or in Washington. Their law practice itself, while successful, was of such a nature that it in fact provided additional fertile ground for resentment on Herndon's part.

Herndon had described the office he shared with Lincoln as "a dull, dry place so far as pleasurable or interesting incidents are concerned." It was Herndon who was responsible for the day-to-day routine and maintenance of that "dull, dry place" when Lincoln rode the circuit, met with clients and witnesses, and experienced life beyond the desk and the dust, and again when as a Congressman Lincoln spent many months in the nation’s capitol. When Lincoln was at home and working in the office, the flow of people there was much increased and often created an atmosphere of great comradery. All of that, however, focused on Lincoln the Indian-fighter, Lincoln the lawyer, Lincoln the politician ... Lincoln the story-teller. When he was gone again, the scene must have quickly returned to one of cheerless drudgery. Finally, when he departed for the highest office of the land, Lincoln told Herndon to stay and keep the practice going until he returned from the White House. Once Lincoln left Springfield, Herndon never saw him again, though Lincoln lived another five years.

There is considerable doubt, then, whether Herndon's biography of his former partner was compiled out of nothing more or less than a genuine concern for the truth, and evidence to demonstrate that it was, at least in part, out of a degree of masked resentment or jealousy. It may be that the nation’s overreaction to Lincoln’s death, bestowing upon him a kind of sainthood, was for Herndon one reminder too many of how great a man Lincoln was and how much Lincoln had achieved or enjoyed, while he, Herndon, kept the business going and sat in relative obscurity.

Then there is the compelling motivation of monetary gain. When Lincoln became President, Herndon did attempt to maintain their law practice on his own, but with little success. With Lincoln's assassination, the former days were gone forever, and Herndon wasted no time but immediately began a series of lectures on Lincoln. At the same time, he began to compile material for his Lincoln biography, which he must have expected half the country would clamor to own. Unfortunately, what he said called Lincoln’s character into question, and his law practice met its demise. He then undertook the hard life of a farmer, and was no more successful there. In the midst of great financial struggle, he pursued the biography, which he surely hoped would bring him financial soundness. Did he deliberately set out to cast a shadow on Lincoln’s halo while hoping to improve his own circumstances? Was he perhaps seeking his own bit of glory with less than scrupulous care for Lincoln’s reputation?

[edit] Works

Lincoln's Herndon by David Herbert Donald

"Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life," William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik (1889)

Letters: (1) William H. Herndon to Jesse W. Weik, Jan. 16, 1886, Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress; and (2) Mary Todd Lincoln to David Davis, Mar. 6, [1867], "Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters," ed. Justin G. Turner and Linda Leavitt Turner (1972)

"The Abraham Lincoln Genesis Cover-up: The Censored Origins of an Illustrious Ancestor," R. Vincent Enlow, [relating Herndon's accounts] http://genealogytoday.com/us/lincoln/genesis.html (2001)

"Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," Abraham Lincoln, Ed. Roy P. Basler (1953): 15 Feb 1848 Letter from Lincoln to Herndon