Did Lincoln say these words:

[David Lockmiller]

(01-30-2022 10:40 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Bill, I did a search of the Collected Works and found only three instances where he used the word "evading."

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln?rgn...q1=evading

First instance:

It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest, has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made setting a limit to the rates of usury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made, without materially injuring any class of people. In cases of extreme necessity there could always be means found to cheat the law, while in all other cases it would have its intended effect. I would not favor the passage of a law upon this subject, which might be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it, could only be justified in cases of the greatest necessity.

Bill, it was not Lincoln who would be "evading" the law; it would be the unscrupulous wanting to do so. And, so, you were correct in saying that it does not sound like Lincoln.

Further on in the text, Lincoln states prophetically:

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed."

New Salem, March 9, 1832.