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its history. Although the county was sparsely settled and schools were few and means of transportation were practically limited to the saddle horse and the wagon, there was a good degree of intelligence, a native shrewdness, a discriminating judgment among the people. Many a man who signed his name with a cross held not inconsiderable estates that he had won by his own sagacity and was regarded with warm respect by his neighbors. The newspaper and the book were yet to as- sume much of the dignity with which the later years have crowned them. The county seat was several miles from the nearest railroad, but cases were not unknown to its tribunal that attracted to the little village the ablest lawyers of central and northern Illinois. The presiding judges were capable men and well versed in the law. Robert G. Ingersoll, already fa- mous for the brilliancy of his wit, the eloquence of his argu- ments and the breadth of his legal knowledge, was a familiar figure in the little court room. One Abraham Lincoln, who lived at the capital of the state and rode the Bloomington-Dan- ville circuit, with David Davis, Leonard Swett and others of their peers, occasionally found himself at Metamora. It was a good place for the young man. He was not lacking in political partisanship and the lines were sharply drawn in the intensity of the political situation, yet he was so amply endowed with tactfulness and kindliness of spirit that he was scarcely less 82 ADLAI EWTNG STEVENSON popular with his political opponents than with his political friends.