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CHAPTER IX

LINCOLN THE LAWYER

man other than Lincoln ever made so many concessions to his opponents in a discussion and yet succeeded in convincing his hearers, whether a jury in a law-case or an audience of the people in a political canvass. Sometimes, those who were with him but did not, perhaps, understand his methods, were dismayed as they heard him give away point after point in the case that he presented. Their surprise, therefore, was very great when he began to sum up and, by the force of his reasoning, won his suit. This was because he knew his case thoroughly; he did not wait until its weak points were disclosed by the speaker on the other side. It was the natural habit of his mind to look at the objections that might be found against any given course. He considered difficulties in order that he might be prepared for failure and disappointment. He never forgot the advice of Captain Davy Crockett: "Be sure you are right, then go ahead."

Honest himself, he was intolerant of dishonesty in others. A good instance of this was shown in the suit brought by an old man named Case against "the Snow boys" to recover the amount of a note given by them for three yoke of oxen and a “breaking plough."

They had bought the team and had given their note for the amount of the purchase-money, and, being unable to pay when the note became due, they were sued for the money. Their counsel appeared in court and set up the plea that the defendants were not of age when the note was given, and were, therefore, in law, incompetent to make a contract, and that the note was void.

As counsel for Case, Lincoln produced in court the note signed by the Snow boys. It was admitted that the note was given in payment for the plough and oxen. Then the defendants' counsel offered to prove that they were under age when they signed the note. Yes," said Lincoln, "I guess we will admit that." 66 Is there a count in the declaration for oxen and plough sold and delivered?" asked the justice.

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"Yes," said Lincoln; "and I have only one or two questions to ask of the witness who has been called by the defendants' counsel to prove the age of his clients." "Where is that prairie team now?" asked Lincoln. On the farm of the Snow boys."

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Have you seen any one breaking prairie with it lately?"

"Yes," said the witness," the boys were breaking up with it yesterday."

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How old are the boys now?”

One is a little over twenty-one, and the other is near twenty-three."

"That is all," said Lincoln.

"Gentlemen," said Lincoln to the jury; "these boys never would have tried to cheat old Farmer Case out of these oxen and that plough but for the advice of counsel. It was bad advice, bad in morals, bad in law. The law never sanctions cheating, and a lawyer

must be very smart indeed to twist it so that it will seem to do so. The judge will tell you, what your own sense of justice has already told you, that these Snow boys, if they were mean enough to plead the baby act, when they came to be men would have taken the plough and oxen back. They cannot go back on their contract and also keep what the note was given for."

Without leaving their seats, the jury gave a verdict for old Farmer Case.

A more celebrated case was that which Lincoln tried in 1841, and was known as that of Bailey vs. Cromwell. A negro girl named Nancy had been sold, as a slave, by Cromwell to Bailey, and a promissory note taken in payment. The note was not paid when it became due, and suit was brought in the Tazewell County Court, Illinois, to recover the amount. The case was then taken to the Supreme Court of the State, and Lincoln appeared for the maker of the note, Bailey. He argued that the girl could not be held in slavery, since, under what was known as the Ordinance of 1787, slavery was prohibited in the Northwest Territory, of which Illinois was a part, as well as by the constitution of that State, which expressly prohibited slavery. He insisted that, as the consideration for which the note was given was a human being, and, under the laws of Illinois, a human being could not be bought and sold, the note was void. The court reversed the decision of the lower court, and the note was thus declared void, as Lincoln had alleged that it was.

Another slave case in which Lincoln was concerned was that of an old slave woman living near Springfield. She had been born in slavery in Kentucky, and, with her children, had passed into the possession of a man

named Hinkle. Hinkle had moved into Illinois, bringing his slaves with him; but, as he could not hold them there, he had given them their freedom. In course of time, a son of the woman had hired himself as a cabin waiter on a steamboat and had voyaged down the Mississippi. At New Orleans the boy had gone ashore, forgetting, or not knowing, that he was liable to arrest. In accordance with the custom of the times, he was seized by the police and locked up, the rules of the city requiring that any colored person found at large, after nightfall, without a written pass from his owner, should be confined in the "calaboose." Meanwhile the steamboat had left, and the boy was liable to be sold into slavery to pay his fine.

Word was sent to the boy's mother, in Illinois. In her distress she appealed to Lincoln, and roused his interest. The Governor, when applied to, regretted that there was no legal remedy provided for such a state of facts. He could do nothing. Lincoln rose to his feet, in great excitement, and said: “By the Almighty! I'll have that negro back soon, or I'll have a twenty-years' excitement in Illinois until the Governor does have a legal and constitutional right to do something in the premises!" The twenty-years' excitement came in due time, but, meanwhile, Lincoln and his partner, Herndon, sent money of their own to New Orleans to pay the fine and other expenses of the boy, and brought him home to his grateful mother.

It is related of Edward D. Baker, Lincoln's friend and comrade, that being once asked to undertake a suit in which the rights of a fugitive slave were involved, he said that, as a public man and a politician, he did not dare to take it. An anti-slavery friend of the man who was in trouble was next applied to for advice, and

Go to Lincoln.

he said: He's not afraid of an unpopular case. When I go for a lawyer to defend an arrested fugitive slave, other lawyers will refuse me, but if Lincoln is at home he will always take my case." The reader will remember that the leader of "the Clary's Grove boys," Jack Armstrong, became Lincoln's steadfast friend and ally, after the tussle between him and young Lincoln, in Salem. When Jack Armstrong was married, and had become a steady-going householder, his home was always open to the welcome visits of his old friend. Here, when lack of employment cast him down, Lincoln found a harbor of rest and refuge. It was in Mrs. Jack Armstrong's house that a chance visitor first saw Lincoln, prone on a trundle-bed, rocking a cradle with one foot while he read aloud. And in later years, when Jack Armstrong was dead and his boy had grown to man's estate, his mother came to Lincoln in great trouble. Her son, William D. Armstrong, had been arrested for murder. Lincoln knew nothing of the case, but he undertook it, and, after looking into the facts, he became assured that the lad was innocent.

It appeared that young Armstrong, in company with some of his mates, had visited a camp-meeting and had become involved in a quarrel. The difficulty was prolonged into the night, and, in the course of the fracas, a mortal blow was dealt to a young man. The evidence against the prisoner was chiefly circumstantial, except that one witness did swear that he saw the pris oner inflict the fatal blow with a slung-shot.

Lincoln surprised everybody by his calm, merciless, and destructive analysis of the evidence, which, to him, looked like a conspiracy against young Armstrong. But when he came to the evidence of the man

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