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LINCOLN'S DEFENSE OF DUFF ARMSTRONG.

By J. N. Gridley.

About forty years ago, the writer, a young man, and a comparative stranger in Beardstown, Illinois, heard a conversation in that city between two persons, not known to him. One of them, whom I will designate as Brown, was telling the other of the trial of Duff Armstrong in Beardstown in the spring of 1858. Brown said that he heard the trial; that a witness for the People testified that the prisoner assaulted the deceased at 10 o'clock at night; that the moon was directly overhead, and it was as light as day; that he stood near by, and saw Armstrong strike the deceased several terrible blows with a slung shot. Brown said the State's Attorney then rested his case, and the court adjourned for the day. That night Lincoln went to a drug store at the corner of the square on State street and procured a number of almanacs, which he took to his room, and with them "manufactured" an almanac which showed there was no moon on the night of the assault; this "doctored" almanac was introduced to the jury and resulted in the acquittal of the prisoner. Brown said that Lincoln was a very able and shrewd lawyer, thus to be able to deceive the court and jury and to succeed in clearing his client. A few years previous to this conversation I had attended political meetings, held in Michigan, during the campaign of 1860, and heard the republican candidate spoken of as "Honest Old Abe," and thought if the management of this Armstrong case was a specimen of his honesty, that he did not deserve the appellation.

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Tablet placed upon the City Hall, Beardstown, Ill., by the ladies of Beardstown, Feb. 12, 1909,

66

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Collier, of Petersburg, was State's Attorney. gave his testimony, and showed, what appeared to the audience, a strong proof of murder. Lincoln cross-examined very little, only looking up and ascertaining a few dates and places. His own witnesses were to show comparatively good moral character for the prisoner previous to the time of the murder. Collier, feeling sure of his case, made but a short and formal argument. Then Lincoln followed for the defense. He began calmly, slowly and carefully. He struck at the very heart of the State's evidence, that of the chief witness, Allen. He followed up first one discrepancy, then another, and then another; finally he came to that part of the testimony of the chief witness where he had sworn positively by the light of the moon he had seen the prisoner deliver the fatal blow with a sling-shot. Then he asked a cousin of Armstrong, Jake Jones by name, to go out and get him an almanac at the nearest store.

"Taking this almanac Lincoln showed that on the night sworn to and the hour sworn to, the moon had not risen, proving that the whole of this testimony was a perjury."

The reader of this part of the account would naturally wonder why Allen would commit perjury in order to send Duff Armstrong to the gallows, when he had agreed to stay away at the instance of Armstrong's friends. A reluctant witness, who is brought into the witness box by an attachment, is not likely to swear falsely to aid the cause of the party that dragged him into court.

Having read these various accounts, and having heard from numerous persons of the fraudulent almanac, and being absolutely unable to believe that Abraham Lincoln would be guilty of such outrageous conduct, I concluded to look into the matter, late as it was.

I first directed a letter to the Professor of Astronomy of the University of Illinois, inquiring the position of the moon in this latitude and longitude on the night of

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