L~N COLN LORE Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation - • - - - Dr. Louis A. Warren, Editor Pub\lshed each week by 'l'he Lincoln National Life lnnrance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana Number 958 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA August 18, 1947 JAMES SPEED. ATIORNEY GENERAL When Joshua Speed invited Abra­ tainments, fervent devotion to the "1 have seen the President this ham Lincoln to share his room over Union and to the /rinciples of your morning and consented to take the the Speed store at Springfield, illinois, Administration, an spotless purity of office tendered, in the event my nomi· in 1837 he opened the way for a friend­ personal character. To these be adds nation is confumed by the Senate.'' ship which eventually contributed to -what I should deem indispensable­ the selection of Speed's brother James a warm and hearty friendship for Mr. Speed may have had some ink­ as Attorney General of the United yoursel!, personally and officially." ling that his confirmation as attorney States. It was through Lincoln's general might not be passed im­ friendship for Joshua that he first met mediately, in fact it was held up James Speed in 1841. Lincoln was on several days. According to Noah a visit to Joshua Speed in Louisville, JAMES SPEED Brooks the delay was purposely caused Kentucky, where he met the members of the Speed family. Jantes Speed, In Born, Louisville, Kentucky, March 12, to impress Lincoln on the obscurity an address on Lincoln, said: 1812 of the man he was nominating. The public inauguration of Chase as Chief "1 knew ll!r, Lincoln when he visited Completed course nt St. Joseph Col­ Justice was also delayed as the At­ Kentucky, twenty years before he came lege, 1828 torney General's signature was needed to the Presidency. He then showed Graduated from Law Department on documents necessary to complete he was no ordinary man. I saw him the induction. The confirmation was daily; he sat in my office, read my Transylvania University, 1838 books, and talked with me about his finally made however. life, his reading, his studies. his as­ Practiced Law nt Louisville, J<entucky pirations. He made a dceided impres­ Scn•ed Term in General Council City On January 15, 1865 Speed wrote sion upon all. He had an intelligent, at Louisville his mother that he had attended "two vi(;Orious, mind, strong in grasp, and great dinners . , . we had nothing or1ginal. He was earnest, frank, manly Member Lower House of Kentue.k at either dinner as good as jowl and and sincere in every thought and ex· Legislature, 1847-1849 turnip greens, or pig's head and pression. The artificial was a1l want-­ hominy . On looking around at ing. He had natural force and natural Contributed several ortielcs to the refinement. His after-lite was a con­ the gentlemen I found them all dressed press in 1849 against importation in swallow·tailcd coats, except myself, tinuous development of his youthful of slaves promise." and nicely fixed up at all points from Member of the Kentuck Senate, 1861- head to heel. I looked upon it as a Lincoln's visit in the highly cultural 1863 mere conventionality of which I had home of Judge John Speed was a far not been appraised and so thought cry from the one room cabin which Favored Lincoln's Compensation no more of it." he had left when he migrated from the Emancipation Plan state with his parents twenty-five It was also to his mother that he years before. Possibly the outstanding Mustering Officer for Kentucky, 1861 wrote this reaction towards the se­ chnracter in the home was the wife Exerted tremendous influenee in keep. curity of the nation at the time of of the Judge, Lucy G. Speed, the the President's assassination. His note mother of Joshua and James. On ing 1\.entucky in the Union bears the date of April 17. He said October 3, 1861 Abraham Lincoln sent in part. her his photograph with the inscrip­ Entered Cnbinct of Abrahant Lincoln, tion, uFor Mrs. Lucy G. Speed from 1864 "The best and greatest man 1 ever whose pious hand I accepted the knew, and one holding just now the present of an Oxford Bible twenty highest and most responsible position years ago." on ea.rth has been taken from us, While we would not imply that but do not be downcast and hopeless. Upon the resignation of Bates, the James Speed was not qualified for the This great !(Overnmcnt was not bound Attorney General, it seemed almost high office he was to occupy it was up in the hfe of any one man. The certain, for cxpcdtency sake at least, undoubtedly friendship for the Speed great and true principles of self­ that a man from the South would have family which was 11rtmarily respons­ government will under God be worked to be selected to fill his place. Ap­ ible for Lincoln's mviting Speed to out by us or by better men." parently Lincoln's first choice was fill the vacancy caused by the resigna­ Judge Joseph Holt also a Kentuckian, tion of Bates. This was apparently On the very last public occasion a former member of Buchanan's cabi· Lincoln's only cabinet ap11ointment which James Speed attended but a net whom Lincoln had appointed in where friendship was a maJOr factor month before his death he read a 1861 Judge Advocate General of the in the selection of a member o! the paper before the Society of the Loyal Army, and Inter Lincoln had made official famil~-r. Legion of Cincinnati. In the introduc­ him head of the Bureau of Military tion of this address he paid a brief Jusiee. Judge Holt however refused The outstanding personality of tribute to Lincoln which scents ap­ to accept the appointment of attorney James Speed's mother is indicated by propriate to use here. general._ but he did recommend highly the place she occupied in the lives James <:>peed. He said: of her sons even after they had be­ "I believe that in all the annals of come men of prominence. Upon being our race Abraham Lincoln is the ul can recall no public man in the invited to a place in the Cabinet James finest example of an unknown man State, (Kentucky) of uncompromising Speed wrote to his mother from Wash­ rising ft·om obscurity and ascending loyalty, who un.ites in the same degree ington. Washington, Dec. 5, 1864: to the loftiest heights of human the qualifications of professional at- "Dear Mother grandeur.'' .