In keeping with the custom of almost all trial advocacy books which deal with cross-examination, the first edition of our book contained the story of the Almanac Trial and Lincoln’s dramatic cross examination of Charles Allen.
When we were writing the first edition of Cross-Examination Handbook, I pointed out to my co-authors that there was some question about the accuracy of the story. I based my belief on the fact that I had read several variations of the story of Lincoln's dramatic cross-examination, and no two were exactly alike. Now, I know that no to witnesses ever tell the exact same story in exactly the same words. The part of the story, however, which differed from variation to variation was a part which should have been verbatim the same in each account—the transcript of the questions Lincoln asked on cross-examination. I also strongly suspected that any transcript of the cross would be fabricated. Court reporters don't type up transcripts of cases where the defendant is found not guilty.
Despite my misgivings, we decided to keep the story of Lincoln's cross in the first edition of Cross-Examination Handbook, but the issue helped to inspire me to investigate the issue and write Lincoln’s Most Famous Case.
I hadn't been researching long before I discovered that the story we told was one of three versions of Lincoln's performance in the trial. Version One, the story we told in Cross-Examination Handbook, actually finds its origin in The Graysons, a historical novel written by Edward Eggleston in the 1880's. Eggleston's book had Lincoln save an innocent man with a brilliant cross, but it was very different from Lincoln's actual cross. The other two versions originated as campaign rhetoric in Lincoln’s first run for the presidency. Version Two hardly mentions the cross, but portrays Lincoln as the consummate orator who exposes Allan’s perjury by using an almanac during final argument. Version Three paints Lincoln as a shyster who used a fake almanac to discredit a truthful witness. Given Lincoln’s great fame as the author of the Gettysburg Address, Version Two would seem to have the most prior probability. But Version Three, the shyster story, had such verisimilitude that one of Lincoln’s close friends, Ward Hill Lamon, incuded it in his Life of Lincoln.
My book, Lincoln’s Most Famous Case, presents a Version Four, which I believe to be the most
accurate version. Instead of basing the story on a novel or campaign rhetoric,
I based my reconstructed Version Four on a careful reading of the surviving letters
and statements of the men and women who were actually involved in the trial itself. I determined that although Version One was inaccurate, it taught basically the lesson about trial advocacy and cross-examination as Version Four. The fourth version just wasn't as dramatic as the first.
Trying to figure out what happened in that long-ago case
proved to be, at least for me, an engaging detective story. I discovered all
sorts of interesting facts about Lincoln and about how cases were tried in
antebellum Illinois, and I was able to correct a number of other misconceptions
about the trial. If you like history and you like puzzles, you should like Lincoln’s Most Famous Case. I was well satisfied
with the end product, but still I was not happy with the version of the story
we told in Cross-Examination Handbook.
It was inaccurate and needed to be corrected.
I therefore was glad to learn that the publisher wanted to print a second
edition of Cross-Examination Handbook. The request showed that we had done a good job writing the first
edition, and it gave us an opportunity to correct the inaccuracies in our
story of Lincoln’s cross.
The second edition is at the printer’s as I write, and it comes out some time in 2015.
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