Encounters
''quondam'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜encounter｜ENC｜20260904134559-32-•
Lincoln and Stuart usually charged $5 to $10 for their services, dividing those modest fees equally. The only large sum they received was $500 for a sensational murder trial in 1838. The case arose when Henry Truett, quondam register of the Galena land office, cold-bloodedly shot and killed a political opponent, Jacob Early, a doctor and Methodist minister who had criticized Truett’s appointment to the land office post. Truett hired Lincoln, Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, Edward D. Baker, and Cyrus Edwards to defend him; the prosecution team included Stephen A. Douglas. Faced with overwhelming evidence of their client’s guilt, Lincoln and his colleagues lamely argued that when Truett pulled a gun on Early, the latter had picked up a chair and was therefore armed when he was shot by Truett, who in fact was merely acting in self-defense. (Witnesses testified that the victim was obviously using the chair as a shield, not a weapon.) Though only in practice for a year, Lincoln was chosen to deliver the closing speech to the jury. No record exists of his words; Logan praised his “short but strong and sensible speech,” and Milton Hay recalled that despite “his rawness, awkwardness and uncultivated manner,” Lincoln “was expected to make a strong speech in the case, and that expectation was not disappointed.” It must have been quite persuasive, for the jury, amazingly, delivered a verdict of not guilty, which doubtless bolstered Lincoln’s self-confidence.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original