Lincoln's autocrat

[Eva Elisabeth]

Here's a different version by eyewitness W. M. Dickson:

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=86

"By the custom of the bar, as between counsel of equal standing, and in the absence of any action of the client, the original counsel speaks. By this rule, Mr. Lincoln had precedence. Mr. Stanton suggested to Mr. Lincoln to make the speech. Mr. Lincoln answered, 'No; you speak.' Mr. Stanton replied, 'I will,' and taking up his hat, said he would go and make preparation. Mr. Lincoln acquiesced in this, but was deeply grieved and mortified; he took but little more interest in the case, though remaining until the conclusion of the trial."8 Another witness said that Mr. Lincoln "felt that he had been 'tricked' out of the case & the transaction deeply affected him."9

According to Stanton biographer Frank A. Flower: "Mr. Stanton devoted himself exclusively to the law and his argument excited the admiration of all who heard it.. At time the Court regarded him in amazement, so extraordinary were his memory and power of analysis. Mr. Lincoln (apparently forgetting the presence of the Court) stood throughout Stanton's entire argument, occasionally very near him, drinking his words, and then walking back and forth in the back part of the room, closely observing the speaker all the time, wrapt in admiration. As Stanton closed and we left the room, Lincoln invited me to take a walk with him, which lasted some hours. After a considerable silence, he said: '[Ralph] Emerson, it would have been a great mistake if I had spoken in this case; I did not fully understand it.'" Flower continued: "Another long silence as we walked on, and again: 'Emerson, I am going home to study law. You know that for any rough-and-tumble case (and a pretty good one, too) I am enough for any man we have out in that country; but these college trained men are coming West. They have had all the advantages of a life-long training in the law, plenty of time to study and everything, perhaps, to fit them. Soon they will be Illinois, and I must meet them. I am just going home to study law, and when they appear I will be ready.'" 10

The sources are:
8. Francis Fisher Browne, The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 268.
9. Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, editor, "Herndon's Informants", p. 755 (Letter from William M. Dickson to Jesse W. Weik, April 17 1888).
10. Frank Abial Flower, "Edwin McMasters Stanton: The Autocrat of Rebellion, Emancipation, and Reconstruction", p. 62-63.

What is the Fehrenbachers' opinion of the "long-armed creature" incident?