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CHAPTER IX.

LINCOLN THE LAWYER.

An Honest Advocate and Counsellor-The Snow Boys and Old Man Case Famous Lawsuits about Negroes-Jack Armstrong's Son on Trial for Murder-Lincoln's Vindication of His Old FriendHow the Attorney Looked and Spoke.

MEN

ENTION has already been made of Lincoln's immovable honesty. This was not only conspicuous in his dealings with men, but in his course as a politician and a lawyer. No man more than he ever made so many concessions to his opponents in a discussion, and yet succeeded in convincing those who were to be carried by his argument, whether it was 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. He relied on what lawyers call the equity of the case that he presented to the minds of men; and he was sure to go to the very bottom of things before he got through. It was the natural habit of his mind

to look at the objections that might be found against any given course rather than to the advantages and attractions of the same. People who knew him only on the surface, as it were, said that he looked on the dark side of things. This was not exactly true. 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; and not a few cases are mentioned of his fairly blazing with wrath when he presented to a jury the facts which showed the craft and wickedness of those who would escape their just deserts. He seemed to seize upon all the salient points of his opponent's case, before even they had attracted the attention of the counsel for the other side. And, what was remarkable, he seldom appealed to the native sense of justice which is hidden in a jury without success. A good instance of this was shown in the suit of an old man named Case, brought against "the Snow boys," to recover the amount of a note given by them for three yoke of oxen and a "breaking plough." This team was used for breaking up the soil of the virgin prairie and was absolutely needful as part of the outfit of a prairie farmer, in those days. The Snow boys were not of age. 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

infants, or minors, 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." "Is there a count in the declaration for oxen and plough sold and delivered?" asked the justice.

"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."

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

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

"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, made up of men of the neighborhood, gave a verdict for Lincoln's client, 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, or indentured servant, 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, and judgment was given for the plaintiff. 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 Northwestern 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. A human being could not be an object of sale and transfer in a free State. It will be noticed that this involved some of the questions

which Lincoln afterwards took so large a part in discussing. His argument, covering as it did the existence and the rights claimed for human slavery under the constitution of a State, the Ordinance of 1787, and the law of nations, was very carefully constructed. The court reversed the judgment and the note was thus declared void, as Lincoln had alleged that it was. At that time, the case attracted great attention from its novelty as well as its importance. Lincoln was then thirty-two years of age, and his connection with so weighty and grave a suit undoubtedly occasioned him a very careful and thorough examination of the questions related to slavery.

Another slave case in which Lincoln was concerned was more interesting, because his heart was engaged when the legal aspect of the affair had disappeared. An old slave woman, living near Springfield, 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 night, without a written pass from his owner, should be confined in the "calaboose." After some delay, the boy was

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