Anyone live near Springfield, Illinois? Help needed

[maharba]

Abraham Lincoln 'overstayed his welcome' in Springfield and Illinois. While others had moved on to higher elective or appointive office, Lincoln appeared to enjoy his several more years 'on the circuit'. Some say cause he just wanted to get away from his bad-tempered wife, but I think he enjoyed what he was doing and he planned and continued to hone his profession. From earliest years, it appears Lincoln was pleased with his stump speeches to first other children then nominally literate crowds, then rural jurors, and before judges. It seems that Lincoln was constantly perfecting and enjoying himself, as he would induct bits of erudition here and there --some of it legalistic, some from papers and literature, others from verbal exchanges. He would turn it over in his mind, rework it, and plan on a good setting where he would revisit a reworked and synthesized phrase or speech before: a judge or jury or a small audience of farmers. I think Abraham Lincoln particularly enjoyed being able to sway a set of jurors, when the evidence was against his client; by appealing to them in homilies which put his client in a favorable comparison. As he approached a national stage, he could see that it was even easier to do.