Encounters
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Green stimulated Lincoln’s interest in the law by inviting him to attend sessions of his court, where Green’s directness and informality could lead to humorous moments. When John Ferguson sued Green’s poetry-loving friend Jack Kelso for stealing a hog, Green ruled in Kelso’s favor, even though he had no proof and witnesses testified that the hog was Ferguson’s. Green announced that “the two witnesses we have heard have sworn to a—lie. I know this shoat, and I know it belongs to Jack Kelso. I therefore decide this case in his favor.” When Lincoln queried him about the verdict, Green explained that “the first duty of a court is to decide cases justly and in accordance with the truth.” Green displayed a similarly casual approach to the niceties of the law when he asked attorney Edward D. Baker if a justice of the peace could preside over slander suits. After Baker replied that only courts of general jurisdiction could hear a slander case, Green expostulated: “Well, think again; you have not read law very well, or very long; try it again; now, have I not jurisdiction; can I not do it?” Once again Baker responded in the negative. After another round of such questioning, Green finally said: “I know I can; for, by Heaven, I have done it.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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Shortly thereafter at Equality, Lincoln delivered a speech that sent the Whig faithful into ecstasies. He likened Democrat Josiah Lamborn’s switch from Whig to Democrat to the adventures of a slave in Kentucky who had been sent by his master to deliver two puppies to a neighbor. En route, the slave stopped at a dramshop for refreshment, leaving outside the covered basket containing the dogs. While he was imbibing, two jokers replaced the pups with piglets. Upon arrival at his destination, the slave was astounded to see that the canines had become porcine. Returning to his master, the slave once again paused at the dramshop, where the pranksters removed the pigs and restored the pups to the basket. When explaining to his master how the dogs had been transformed into pigs, the slave was startled to observe that the pigs were once again pups. The nonplussed slave expostulated: “I isn’t drunk, but dem dar puppies can be pigs or puppies just when dey please!” Just so, Lincoln said, Lamborn could be a Whig or a Democrat “just when he pleased.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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