A while back I mentioned that the update to our book on cross-examination had been finished and sent to the publisher. Its relevance to this blog is, of course, the fact that it is the only trial manual in existence which contains an accurate account of Abraham Lincoln's famous cross-examination in the Almanac Trial.
The book is now in print. You can check it out at the Amazon site or the Wolters Kluwer site.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Saturday, September 27, 2014
CROSS-EXAMINATION HANDBOOK--PERSUASION, STRATEGIES, AND TECHNIQUES
The most successful book I ever had a hand in writing
has to be Cross-Examination Handbook. It has done so well that our publisher wants us to keep it up-to-date with a second edition. The publisher asked, and we responded. We (my co-authors and I) have just finished writing the second edition, which takes note of recent case law and statutory law, and discusses some of the high-profile cases tried since the first edition.
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.
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.
The second edition is at the printer’s as I write, and it comes out some time in 2015.
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.
Friday, September 26, 2014
CONGRESSMAN LINCOLN ON SECESSION
Although I don’t plan to do any more writing about Abraham
Lincoln in the foreseeable future, I continue to be fascinated by the man.
My interest in Lincoln has prompted me to amass a large and growing library on the man. Because many of the books which interest me are out of print, I buy them used.
The other day I got in some old books about Lincoln and as I was going through
them, some newspaper clippings fell out.
I didn’t pay much attention to them at the time, so I don’t know
which of the books they came from. Yesterday I got around to studying the
clippings. The articles gave no indication of when they were published or by
whom, but they appear to be very old. Upon examination, decided that the clippings had been cut from some American Socialist newspaper printed shortly before World War
II, and they seem to have been published in an effort to paint Lincoln as a
proto-Socialist who would have approved of a violent Socialist overthrow of
capitalism in America.
One of the articles purported to be a reprint of a speech
Congressman Lincoln made before the House of Representatives in 1848 condemning the War
with Mexico. It’s not unusual that a President of the United States would
condemn the war—in his autobiography Ulysses S. Grant, who served in the war
with distinction, said it was one of the greatest injustices a stronger country
could visit upon a weaker. What was unusual about the speech was something
Lincoln supposedly said about disaffected citizens rising up and throwing off their
government. The remarks were so contrary
to Lincoln’s position during the Civil War that I hardly credited the words as
coming out of the future President’s mouth. I went to the Collected Works of
Abraham Lincoln to verify that Lincoln actually spoke those words, and found that the article quoted him correctly.
Here’s what he said:
Any people anywhere, being inclined
and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing
government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable—a
most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing
government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may
revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the territory as they inhabit.
More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize,
putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose
their movement. Such minority, was precisely the case, of the Tories of our own
revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws;
but to break up both, and make new ones.
Lincoln apparently had changed his mind by the time the Southern
states began the process of trying to “rise up, and shake off the existing
government, and form a new one that suit[ed] them better.” If he hadn't changed his mind, there might not be a United States today.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
LINCOLN ON THE CIRCUIT
For my entire career as a trial lawyer, I practiced in the
Third Judicial Circuit, which covers seven counties in North Central Florida. When
the circuits were created in Florida, the state was a sparsely populated
frontier-like state which was as wild and woolly as any state in the West of
the 1800’s. For a description of
old-time Florida, you can’t do better than to read Patrick D. Smith's novel A Land Remembered, which describes the
free-range cattle industry in early Florida. (My ancestors on my mother’s side free-ranged
cattle from Newberry and Olustee down into central Florida.) In such primitive
conditions, with so few people scattered over such a large area, it was easier
for courts to come to the people rather than for people to come to the court.
Each county in a circuit had a fall and spring term of court which lasted one
to two weeks. The terms were staggered so that the circuit judge could ride
from one county to another in a circuit. Local legend has it that in the Third
Circuit, Judge Hal Adams was still riding a mule from county to county as late
as the 1950’s.
When I started practicing back in the 1970’s Florida still
had terms of court, but there was too much business to hold court as was done
in the old days. We held unofficial terms of court every seven weeks. Each week
we would hold court in a different county, and on the eighth week we would go
back to the first county on the list. This modified form of circuit riding was
breaking down under the weight of growing population and had completely
disappeared by the 1980’s. But it was fun while it lasted. Every week you were
in a different county, and you tried cases one after another for a week.
Sometimes you would try as many as four felony jury trials in one day. This
gave me and my young colleagues a baptism of fire where you learned quickly or
perished. I wouldn’t wish such an introduction to the practice of law on my
worst enemy today.
Can you imagine my surprise (and my pleasure) to discover
that Abraham Lincoln’s trial practice was very similar to what I experienced in
the 1970’s? He practiced in the Eighth Circuit of Illinois, which at one time
encompassed 14 counties. The lawyers of the circuit would ride from county to
county with the circuit judge for each term of court and would spend a week or
two trying cases one right after another until it was time to go to the next
county. They didn’t have cars, and the roads were not good, so when a lawyer
embarked on his circuit, he wouldn’t return home until all the business was
done in every court he visited. Lincoln was one of the few lawyers who visited
every county in the circuit during both fall and spring terms, which meant that
he was gone from home for approximately six months of every year.
The lawyers formed a brotherhood which, like Shakespeare’s
lawyers, would “strive mightily [in court], but eat and drink as friends.” (The
Taming of the Shrew, 1.2.280). Something else the lawyers did mightily was
complain about conditions on the circuit—muddy roads, barely passable fords,
bedbug infested hotels where they slept two or more to a bed, and food which was
near-indigestible were just a few of the hardships faced by Illinois’s aspiring
antebellum trial lawyers. Lincoln never complained. He even worked a reference
to his being bitten by bedbugs (or maybe it was lice) into his
cross-examination of a medical expert in a murder trial.
At the end of a long day in court, Circuit Judge David Davis
would sometimes hold an “orgmathorical” court in his hotel room. Lawyers were
charged with outlandish offenses and tried before the “orgmathorical” court,
and when they were convicted Judge Davis would order that they pay a fine. Even
Lincoln himself did not escape being tried before the orgmathorical court.
Lincoln was notorious for charging modest fees for his services, and this
tendency got the better of his colleagues. They brought him before the
orgmathorical court on a charge of ruining their practice by charging such
small fees. He was duly convicted and Judge Davis passed sentence. We have no
record of whether Lincoln paid the fine, but we can be sure that he harbored no
animosity for the conviction. He later appointed Judge Davis to the Supreme
Court.
The orgmathorical court once tried a genuine wrongdoer. A
man slipped into the women’s sleeping quarters and hid himself under one of the
beds. The two ladies who were to occupy the bed that night discovered him and
raised an outcry. The lawyers sprang to the rescue and captured the miscreant.
Having captured the wrongdoer, they discussed what should be done with him and
decided to try him before the orgmathorical court. Despite the fact that Lincoln
served as his defense attorney the orgmathorical jury found him guilty, and
Judge Davis ordered that he be taken into the back yard and whipped by the
women whom he had offended.
Lincoln’s partner, William H. Herndon, would later write
that Lincoln was never happier than when he was on the circuit trying cases. If
I could avoid the bedbugs, the awful food, and the need for sleeping two to a
bed, I think I would have enjoyed riding the Eighth Circuit with Lincoln and Davis.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRACTICAL JOKER
It is said that Lincoln was never happier than when he was riding from one county to another on the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, trying whatever cases were brought to him and exasperating his colleagues with the small fees he charged. Lincoln loved a good joke and was quick to entertain his fellow lawyers with stories and practical jokes.
Ward Hill Lamon, whom Lincoln often associated to try cases on the circuit, was sometimes the brunt of the joke. Lamon went on to serve as a U.S. Marshal and as Lincoln's bodyguard during his presidency. Lamon was a huge, powerful man who knew how to handle himself in a scuffle, and had he not been off duty on the evening of Lincoln's assassination, things might have turned out quite differently. Lamon "wrote" a biography of his friend Lincoln, but he had the misfortune to hire a ghostwriter who was no fan of the slain president. Lamon's Life of Abraham Lincoln was a failure, and he was roundly criticized for the unkind things the ghostwriter said about Lincoln. In an effort to atone for his ghostwriter's skewering of Lincoln, Lamon wrote several more pieces of literature about Lincoln. Even after his death, his daughter published a book of Lamon's reminiscences about Lincoln.
In Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 Lamon recalls a joke that Lincoln played on him while he (Lamon) was trying a case to a jury. We ought to be able to place great stock in the story because it came from Lamon himself and it tells of a rather embarrassing incident. We will let Lamon tell the story in his own words:
Mr. Lincoln was from the beginning of his circuit-riding the light and life of the court. The most trivial circumstance furnished a back-ground for his wit. The following incident, which illustrates his love of a joke, occurred in the early days of our acquaintance. I, being at the time on the infant side of twenty-one, took particular pleasure in athletic sports. One day when we were attending the circuit court which met at Bloomington, Illinois, I was wrestling near the court house with someone who had challenged me to a trial, and in the scuffle made a large rent in the rear of my trousers. Before I had time to make any change, I was called into court to take up a case. The evidence was finished. I, being the Prosecuting Attorney at the time, got up to address the jury. Having on a somewhat short coat, my misfortune was rather apparent. One of the lawyers, for a joke, started a subscription paper which was passed from one member of the bar to another as they sat by a long table fronting the bench, to buy a pair of pantaloons for Lamon, — "he being," the paper said, "a poor but worthy young man." Several put down their names with some ludicrous subscription, and finally the paper was laid by some one in front of Mr. Lincoln, he being engaged in writing at the time. He quietly glanced over the paper, and, immediately taking up his pen, wrote after his name, "I can contribute nothing to the end in view."
It seems that Lamon was a good enough story teller to have been able to dispense with a ghostwriter for his Life of Lincoln. We can be sure he came to regret not having written the book himself.
Ward Hill Lamon, whom Lincoln often associated to try cases on the circuit, was sometimes the brunt of the joke. Lamon went on to serve as a U.S. Marshal and as Lincoln's bodyguard during his presidency. Lamon was a huge, powerful man who knew how to handle himself in a scuffle, and had he not been off duty on the evening of Lincoln's assassination, things might have turned out quite differently. Lamon "wrote" a biography of his friend Lincoln, but he had the misfortune to hire a ghostwriter who was no fan of the slain president. Lamon's Life of Abraham Lincoln was a failure, and he was roundly criticized for the unkind things the ghostwriter said about Lincoln. In an effort to atone for his ghostwriter's skewering of Lincoln, Lamon wrote several more pieces of literature about Lincoln. Even after his death, his daughter published a book of Lamon's reminiscences about Lincoln.
In Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 Lamon recalls a joke that Lincoln played on him while he (Lamon) was trying a case to a jury. We ought to be able to place great stock in the story because it came from Lamon himself and it tells of a rather embarrassing incident. We will let Lamon tell the story in his own words:
Mr. Lincoln was from the beginning of his circuit-riding the light and life of the court. The most trivial circumstance furnished a back-ground for his wit. The following incident, which illustrates his love of a joke, occurred in the early days of our acquaintance. I, being at the time on the infant side of twenty-one, took particular pleasure in athletic sports. One day when we were attending the circuit court which met at Bloomington, Illinois, I was wrestling near the court house with someone who had challenged me to a trial, and in the scuffle made a large rent in the rear of my trousers. Before I had time to make any change, I was called into court to take up a case. The evidence was finished. I, being the Prosecuting Attorney at the time, got up to address the jury. Having on a somewhat short coat, my misfortune was rather apparent. One of the lawyers, for a joke, started a subscription paper which was passed from one member of the bar to another as they sat by a long table fronting the bench, to buy a pair of pantaloons for Lamon, — "he being," the paper said, "a poor but worthy young man." Several put down their names with some ludicrous subscription, and finally the paper was laid by some one in front of Mr. Lincoln, he being engaged in writing at the time. He quietly glanced over the paper, and, immediately taking up his pen, wrote after his name, "I can contribute nothing to the end in view."
It seems that Lamon was a good enough story teller to have been able to dispense with a ghostwriter for his Life of Lincoln. We can be sure he came to regret not having written the book himself.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
THE TRAILOR MURDER CASE
In addition to being a successful trial lawyer, Lincoln had a gift for writing. Duff Armstrong wasn't the only person he defended on a murder charge. Although he never talked about the Armstrong case, he once wrote an account of one of his early murder cases, a mysterious affair which never had a satisfactory resolution. He wrote the article anonymously for publication in a newspaper called the Quincy Whig. The paper published Lincoln's story with this preface:
It is hoped that Lincoln earned some money from the publication of his story. His clients never paid him for representing them and he wound up filing an unsuccessful lawsuit to recover his fee.
Here, then, in his own words, is the story of what he called a
In the year 1841, there resided, at different points in the State of Illinois, three brothers by the name of Trailor. Their Christian names were William, Henry and Archibald. Archibald resided at Springfield, then as now the Seat of Government of the State. He was a sober, retiring and industrious man, of about thirty years of age; a carpenter by trade, and a bachelor, boarding with his partner in business---a Mr. Myers. Henry, a year or two older, was a man of like retiring and industrious habits; had a family and resided with it on a farm at Clary's Grove, about twenty miles distant from Springfield in a North-westerly direction. William, still older, and with similar habits, resided on a farm in Warren county, distant from Springfield something more than a hundred miles in the same North-westerly direction. He was a widower, with several children. In the neighborhood of William's residence, there was, and had been for several years, a man by the name of Fisher, who was somewhat above the age of fifty; had no family, and no settled home; but who boarded and lodged a while here, and a while there, with the persons for whom he did little jobs of work. His habits were remarkably economical, so that an impression got about that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money.
In the latter part of May in the year mentioned, William formed the purpose of visiting his brothers at Clary's Grove, and Springfield; and Fisher, at the time having his temporary residence at his house, resolved to accompany him. They set out together in a buggy with a single horse. On Sunday Evening they reached Henry's residence, and staid overnight. On Monday Morning, being the first Monday of June, they started on to Springfield, Henry accompanying them on horseback. They reached town about noon, met Archibald, went with him to his boarding house, and there took up their lodgings for the time they should remain. After dinner, the three Trailors and Fisher left the boarding house in company, for the avowed purpose of spending the evening together in looking about the town. At supper, the Trailors had all returned, but Fisher was missing, and some inquiry was made about him. After supper, the Trailors went out professedly in search of him. One by one they returned, the last coming in after late tea time, and each stating that he had been unable to discover anything of Fisher. The next day, both before and after breakfast, they went professedly in search again, and returned at noon, still unsuccessful.
Dinner again being had, William and Henry expressed a determination to give up the search and start for their homes. This was remonstrated against by some of the boarders about the house, on the ground that Fisher was somewhere in the vicinity, and would be left without any conveyance, as he and William had come in the same buggy. The remonstrance was disregarded, and they departed for their homes respectively. Up to this time, the knowledge of Fisher's mysterious disappearance, had spread very little beyond the few boarders at Myers', and excited no considerable interest.
After the lapse of three or four days, Henry returned to Springfield, for the ostensible purpose of making further search for Fisher. Procuring some of the boarders, he, together with them and Archibald, spent another day in ineffectual search, when it was again abandoned, and he returned home. No general interest was yet excited.
On the Friday, week after Fisher's disappearance, the Postmaster at Springfield received a letter from the Postmaster nearest William's residence in Warren county, stating that William had returned home without Fisher, and was saying, rather boastfully, that Fisher was dead, and had willed him his money, and that he had got about fifteen hundred dollars by it. The letter further stated that William's story and conduct seemed strange; and desired the Postmaster at Springfield to ascertain and write what was the truth in the matter. The Postmaster at Springfield made the letter public, and at once, excitement became universal and intense.
Springfield, at that time had a population of about 3500, with a city organization. The Attorney General of the State resided there. A purpose was forthwith formed to ferret out the mystery, in putting which into execution, the Mayor of the city, and the Attorney General took the lead. To make search for, and, if possible, find the body of the man supposed to be murdered, was resolved on as the first step. In pursuance of this, men were formed into large parties, and marched abreast, in all directions, so as to let no inch of ground in the vicinity, remain unsearched. Examinations were made of cellars, wells, and pits of all descriptions, where it was thought possible the body might be concealed. All the fresh, or tolerably fresh graves at the grave-yard were pried into, and dead horses and dead dogs were disinterred, where, in some instances, they had been buried by their partial masters.
This search, as has appeared, commenced on Friday. It continued until Saturday afternoon without success, when it was determined to dispatch officers to arrest William and Henry at their residences respectively. The officers started on Sunday Morning, meanwhile, the search for the body was continued, and rumors got afloat of the Trailors having passed, at different times and places, several gold pieces, which were readily supposed to have belonged to Fisher. On Monday, the officers sent for Henry, having arrested him, arrived with him. The Mayor and Attorney General took charge of him, and set their wits to work to elicit a discovery from him. He denied, and denied, and persisted in denying.
They still plied him in every conceivable way, till Wednesday, when, protesting his own innocence, he stated that his brothers, William and Archibald had murdered Fisher; that they had killed him, without his (Henry's) knowledge at the time, and made a temporary concealment of his body; that immediately preceding his and William's departure from Springfield for home, on Tuesday, the day after Fisher's disappearance, William and Archibald communicated the fact to him, and engaged his assistance in making a permanent concealment of the body; that at the time he and William left professedly for home, they did not take the road directly, but meandering their way through the streets, entered the woods at the North West of the city, two or three hundred yards to the right of where the road where they should have travelled entered them; that penetrating the woods some few hundred yards, they halted and Archibald came a somewhat different route, on foot, and joined them; that William and Archibald then stationed him (Henry) on an old and disused road that ran nearby, as a sentinel, to give warning of the approach of any intruder; that William and Archibald then removed the buggy to the edge of a dense brush thicket, about forty yards distant from his (Henry's) position, where, leaving the buggy, they entered the thicket, and in a few minutes returned with the body and placed it in the buggy; that from his station, he could and did distinctly see that the object placed in the buggy was a dead man, of the general appearance and size of Fisher; that William and Archibald then moved off with the buggy in the direction of Hickox's mill pond, and after an absence of half an hour returned, saying they had put him in a safe place; that Archibald then left for town, and he and William found their way to the road, and made for their homes.
At this disclosure, all lingering credulity was broken down, and excitement rose to an almost inconceivable height. Up to this time, the well-known character of Archibald had repelled and put down all suspicions as to him. Till then, those who were ready to swear that a murder had been committed, were almost as confident that Archibald had had no part in it. But now, he was seized and thrown into jail; and, indeed, his personal security rendered it by no means objectionable to him.
And now came the search for the brush thicket, and the search of the mill pond. The thicket was found, and the buggy tracks at the point indicated. At a point within the thicket the signs of a struggle were discovered, and a trail from thence to the buggy track was traced. In attempting to follow the track of the buggy from the thicket, it was found to proceed in the direction of the mill pond, but could not be traced all the way. At the pond, however, it was found that a buggy had been backed down to, and partially into the water's edge. Search was now to be made in the pond; and it was made in every imaginable way. Hundreds and hundreds were engaged in raking, fishing, and draining. After much fruitless effort in this way, on Thursday Morning, the mill dam was cut down, and the water of the pond partially drawn off, and the same processes of search again gone through with.
About noon of this day, the officer sent for William, returned having him in custody; and a man calling himself Dr. Gilmore, came in company with them. It seems that the officer arrested William at his own house early in the day on Tuesday, and started to Springfield with him; that after dark awhile, they reached Lewiston in Fulton county, where they stopped for the night; that late in the night this Dr. Gilmore arrived, stating that Fisher was alive at his house; and that he had followed on to give the information, so that William might be released without further trouble; that the officer, distrusting Dr. Gilmore, refused to release William, but brought him on to Springfield, and the Dr. accompanied them.
On reaching Springfield, the Dr. re-asserted that Fisher was alive, and at his house. At this the multitude for a time, were utterly confounded. Gilmore's story was communicated to Henry Trailor, who, without faltering, reaffirmed his own story about Fisher's murder. Henry's adherence to his own story was communicated to the crowd, and at once the idea started, and became nearly, if not quite universal that Gilmore was a confederate of the Trailors, and had invented the tale he was telling, to secure their release and escape. Excitement was again at its zenith.
About 3 o'clock the same evening, Myers, Archibald's partner, started with a two horse carriage, for the purpose of ascertaining whether Fisher was alive, as stated by Gilmore, and if so, of bringing him back to Springfield with him. On Friday a legal examination was gone into before two Justices, on the charge of murder against William and Archibald. Henry was introduced as a witness by the prosecution, and on oath, re-affirmed his statements, as heretofore detailed; and, at the end of which, he bore a thorough and rigid cross-examination without faltering or exposure.
The prosecution also proved by a respectable lady, that on the Monday evening of Fisher's disappearance, she saw Archibald whom she well knew, and another man whom she did not then know, but whom she believed at the time of testifying to be William, (then present;) and still another, answering the description of Fisher, all enter the timber at the North West of town, (the point indicated by Henry,) and after one or two hours, saw William and Archibald return without Fisher.
Several other witnesses testified, that on Tuesday, at the time William and Henry professedly gave up the search for Fisher's body and started for home, they did not take the road directly, but did go into the woods as stated by Henry. By others also, it was proved, that since Fisher's disappearance, William and Archibald had passed rather an unusual number of gold pieces. The statements heretofore made about the thicket, the signs of a struggle, the buggy tracks, &c., were fully proven by numerous witnesses. At this the prosecution rested.
Dr. Gilmore was then introduced by the defendants. He stated that he resided in Warren county about seven miles distant from William's residence; that on the morning of William's arrest, he was out from home and heard of the arrest, and of its being on a charge of the murder of Fisher; that on returning to his own house, he found Fisher there; that Fisher was in very feeble health, and could give no rational account as to where he had been during his absence; that he (Gilmore) then started in pursuit of the officer as before stated, and that he should have taken Fisher with him only that the state of his health did not permit. Gilmore also stated that he had known Fisher for several years, and that he had understood he was subject to temporary derangement of mind, owing to an injury about his head received in early life.
There was about Dr. Gilmore so much of the air and manner of truth, that his statement prevailed in the minds of the audience and of the court, and the Trailors were discharged; although they attempted no explanation of the circumstances proven by the other witnesses. On the next Monday, Myers arrived in Springfield, bringing with him the now famed Fisher, in full life and proper person. Thus ended this strange affair; and while it is readily conceived that a writer of novels could bring a story to a more perfect climax, it may well be doubted, whether a stranger affair ever really occurred.
Much of the matter remains in mystery to this day. The going into the woods with Fisher, and returning without him, by the Trailors; their going into the woods at the same place the next day, after they professed to have given up the search; the signs of a struggle in the thicket, the buggy tracks at the edge of it; and the location of the thicket and the signs about it, corresponding precisely with Henry's story, are circumstances that have never been explained.
``The following narrative has been handed us for
publication by a member of the bar. There is no doubt of the truth of every
fact stated; and the whole affair is of so extraordinary a character as to
entitle it to publication, and commend it to the attention of those at present
engaged in discussing reforms in criminal jurisprudence, and the abolition of
capital punishment. ED. WHIG.''
It is hoped that Lincoln earned some money from the publication of his story. His clients never paid him for representing them and he wound up filing an unsuccessful lawsuit to recover his fee.
Here, then, in his own words, is the story of what he called a
REMARKABLE CASE OF ARREST FOR MURDER.
In the year 1841, there resided, at different points in the State of Illinois, three brothers by the name of Trailor. Their Christian names were William, Henry and Archibald. Archibald resided at Springfield, then as now the Seat of Government of the State. He was a sober, retiring and industrious man, of about thirty years of age; a carpenter by trade, and a bachelor, boarding with his partner in business---a Mr. Myers. Henry, a year or two older, was a man of like retiring and industrious habits; had a family and resided with it on a farm at Clary's Grove, about twenty miles distant from Springfield in a North-westerly direction. William, still older, and with similar habits, resided on a farm in Warren county, distant from Springfield something more than a hundred miles in the same North-westerly direction. He was a widower, with several children. In the neighborhood of William's residence, there was, and had been for several years, a man by the name of Fisher, who was somewhat above the age of fifty; had no family, and no settled home; but who boarded and lodged a while here, and a while there, with the persons for whom he did little jobs of work. His habits were remarkably economical, so that an impression got about that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money.
In the latter part of May in the year mentioned, William formed the purpose of visiting his brothers at Clary's Grove, and Springfield; and Fisher, at the time having his temporary residence at his house, resolved to accompany him. They set out together in a buggy with a single horse. On Sunday Evening they reached Henry's residence, and staid overnight. On Monday Morning, being the first Monday of June, they started on to Springfield, Henry accompanying them on horseback. They reached town about noon, met Archibald, went with him to his boarding house, and there took up their lodgings for the time they should remain. After dinner, the three Trailors and Fisher left the boarding house in company, for the avowed purpose of spending the evening together in looking about the town. At supper, the Trailors had all returned, but Fisher was missing, and some inquiry was made about him. After supper, the Trailors went out professedly in search of him. One by one they returned, the last coming in after late tea time, and each stating that he had been unable to discover anything of Fisher. The next day, both before and after breakfast, they went professedly in search again, and returned at noon, still unsuccessful.
Dinner again being had, William and Henry expressed a determination to give up the search and start for their homes. This was remonstrated against by some of the boarders about the house, on the ground that Fisher was somewhere in the vicinity, and would be left without any conveyance, as he and William had come in the same buggy. The remonstrance was disregarded, and they departed for their homes respectively. Up to this time, the knowledge of Fisher's mysterious disappearance, had spread very little beyond the few boarders at Myers', and excited no considerable interest.
After the lapse of three or four days, Henry returned to Springfield, for the ostensible purpose of making further search for Fisher. Procuring some of the boarders, he, together with them and Archibald, spent another day in ineffectual search, when it was again abandoned, and he returned home. No general interest was yet excited.
On the Friday, week after Fisher's disappearance, the Postmaster at Springfield received a letter from the Postmaster nearest William's residence in Warren county, stating that William had returned home without Fisher, and was saying, rather boastfully, that Fisher was dead, and had willed him his money, and that he had got about fifteen hundred dollars by it. The letter further stated that William's story and conduct seemed strange; and desired the Postmaster at Springfield to ascertain and write what was the truth in the matter. The Postmaster at Springfield made the letter public, and at once, excitement became universal and intense.
Springfield, at that time had a population of about 3500, with a city organization. The Attorney General of the State resided there. A purpose was forthwith formed to ferret out the mystery, in putting which into execution, the Mayor of the city, and the Attorney General took the lead. To make search for, and, if possible, find the body of the man supposed to be murdered, was resolved on as the first step. In pursuance of this, men were formed into large parties, and marched abreast, in all directions, so as to let no inch of ground in the vicinity, remain unsearched. Examinations were made of cellars, wells, and pits of all descriptions, where it was thought possible the body might be concealed. All the fresh, or tolerably fresh graves at the grave-yard were pried into, and dead horses and dead dogs were disinterred, where, in some instances, they had been buried by their partial masters.
This search, as has appeared, commenced on Friday. It continued until Saturday afternoon without success, when it was determined to dispatch officers to arrest William and Henry at their residences respectively. The officers started on Sunday Morning, meanwhile, the search for the body was continued, and rumors got afloat of the Trailors having passed, at different times and places, several gold pieces, which were readily supposed to have belonged to Fisher. On Monday, the officers sent for Henry, having arrested him, arrived with him. The Mayor and Attorney General took charge of him, and set their wits to work to elicit a discovery from him. He denied, and denied, and persisted in denying.
They still plied him in every conceivable way, till Wednesday, when, protesting his own innocence, he stated that his brothers, William and Archibald had murdered Fisher; that they had killed him, without his (Henry's) knowledge at the time, and made a temporary concealment of his body; that immediately preceding his and William's departure from Springfield for home, on Tuesday, the day after Fisher's disappearance, William and Archibald communicated the fact to him, and engaged his assistance in making a permanent concealment of the body; that at the time he and William left professedly for home, they did not take the road directly, but meandering their way through the streets, entered the woods at the North West of the city, two or three hundred yards to the right of where the road where they should have travelled entered them; that penetrating the woods some few hundred yards, they halted and Archibald came a somewhat different route, on foot, and joined them; that William and Archibald then stationed him (Henry) on an old and disused road that ran nearby, as a sentinel, to give warning of the approach of any intruder; that William and Archibald then removed the buggy to the edge of a dense brush thicket, about forty yards distant from his (Henry's) position, where, leaving the buggy, they entered the thicket, and in a few minutes returned with the body and placed it in the buggy; that from his station, he could and did distinctly see that the object placed in the buggy was a dead man, of the general appearance and size of Fisher; that William and Archibald then moved off with the buggy in the direction of Hickox's mill pond, and after an absence of half an hour returned, saying they had put him in a safe place; that Archibald then left for town, and he and William found their way to the road, and made for their homes.
At this disclosure, all lingering credulity was broken down, and excitement rose to an almost inconceivable height. Up to this time, the well-known character of Archibald had repelled and put down all suspicions as to him. Till then, those who were ready to swear that a murder had been committed, were almost as confident that Archibald had had no part in it. But now, he was seized and thrown into jail; and, indeed, his personal security rendered it by no means objectionable to him.
And now came the search for the brush thicket, and the search of the mill pond. The thicket was found, and the buggy tracks at the point indicated. At a point within the thicket the signs of a struggle were discovered, and a trail from thence to the buggy track was traced. In attempting to follow the track of the buggy from the thicket, it was found to proceed in the direction of the mill pond, but could not be traced all the way. At the pond, however, it was found that a buggy had been backed down to, and partially into the water's edge. Search was now to be made in the pond; and it was made in every imaginable way. Hundreds and hundreds were engaged in raking, fishing, and draining. After much fruitless effort in this way, on Thursday Morning, the mill dam was cut down, and the water of the pond partially drawn off, and the same processes of search again gone through with.
About noon of this day, the officer sent for William, returned having him in custody; and a man calling himself Dr. Gilmore, came in company with them. It seems that the officer arrested William at his own house early in the day on Tuesday, and started to Springfield with him; that after dark awhile, they reached Lewiston in Fulton county, where they stopped for the night; that late in the night this Dr. Gilmore arrived, stating that Fisher was alive at his house; and that he had followed on to give the information, so that William might be released without further trouble; that the officer, distrusting Dr. Gilmore, refused to release William, but brought him on to Springfield, and the Dr. accompanied them.
On reaching Springfield, the Dr. re-asserted that Fisher was alive, and at his house. At this the multitude for a time, were utterly confounded. Gilmore's story was communicated to Henry Trailor, who, without faltering, reaffirmed his own story about Fisher's murder. Henry's adherence to his own story was communicated to the crowd, and at once the idea started, and became nearly, if not quite universal that Gilmore was a confederate of the Trailors, and had invented the tale he was telling, to secure their release and escape. Excitement was again at its zenith.
About 3 o'clock the same evening, Myers, Archibald's partner, started with a two horse carriage, for the purpose of ascertaining whether Fisher was alive, as stated by Gilmore, and if so, of bringing him back to Springfield with him. On Friday a legal examination was gone into before two Justices, on the charge of murder against William and Archibald. Henry was introduced as a witness by the prosecution, and on oath, re-affirmed his statements, as heretofore detailed; and, at the end of which, he bore a thorough and rigid cross-examination without faltering or exposure.
The prosecution also proved by a respectable lady, that on the Monday evening of Fisher's disappearance, she saw Archibald whom she well knew, and another man whom she did not then know, but whom she believed at the time of testifying to be William, (then present;) and still another, answering the description of Fisher, all enter the timber at the North West of town, (the point indicated by Henry,) and after one or two hours, saw William and Archibald return without Fisher.
Several other witnesses testified, that on Tuesday, at the time William and Henry professedly gave up the search for Fisher's body and started for home, they did not take the road directly, but did go into the woods as stated by Henry. By others also, it was proved, that since Fisher's disappearance, William and Archibald had passed rather an unusual number of gold pieces. The statements heretofore made about the thicket, the signs of a struggle, the buggy tracks, &c., were fully proven by numerous witnesses. At this the prosecution rested.
Dr. Gilmore was then introduced by the defendants. He stated that he resided in Warren county about seven miles distant from William's residence; that on the morning of William's arrest, he was out from home and heard of the arrest, and of its being on a charge of the murder of Fisher; that on returning to his own house, he found Fisher there; that Fisher was in very feeble health, and could give no rational account as to where he had been during his absence; that he (Gilmore) then started in pursuit of the officer as before stated, and that he should have taken Fisher with him only that the state of his health did not permit. Gilmore also stated that he had known Fisher for several years, and that he had understood he was subject to temporary derangement of mind, owing to an injury about his head received in early life.
There was about Dr. Gilmore so much of the air and manner of truth, that his statement prevailed in the minds of the audience and of the court, and the Trailors were discharged; although they attempted no explanation of the circumstances proven by the other witnesses. On the next Monday, Myers arrived in Springfield, bringing with him the now famed Fisher, in full life and proper person. Thus ended this strange affair; and while it is readily conceived that a writer of novels could bring a story to a more perfect climax, it may well be doubted, whether a stranger affair ever really occurred.
Much of the matter remains in mystery to this day. The going into the woods with Fisher, and returning without him, by the Trailors; their going into the woods at the same place the next day, after they professed to have given up the search; the signs of a struggle in the thicket, the buggy tracks at the edge of it; and the location of the thicket and the signs about it, corresponding precisely with Henry's story, are circumstances that have never been explained.
William and Archibald have both died since---William in less
than a year, and Archibald in about two years after the supposed murder. Henry
is still living, but never speaks of the subject. It is not the object of the
writer of this, to enter into the many curious speculations that might be
indulged upon the facts of this narrative; yet he can scarcely forbear a remark
upon what would, almost certainly have been the fate of William and Archibald,
had Fisher not been found alive. It seems he had wandered away in mental
derangement, and, had he died in this condition, and his body been found in the
vicinity, it is difficult to conceive what could have saved the Trailors from
the consequence of having murdered him. Or, if he had died, and his body never
found, the case against them, would have been quite as bad, for, although it is
a principle of law that a conviction for murder shall not be had, unless the
body of the deceased be discovered, it is to be remembered, that Henry
testified he saw Fisher's dead body.
Monday, June 16, 2014
HOW A WAGON HAMMER WAS USED
I got an inquiry from a worker at the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska, saying that they had a number of wagon hammers in their collection, but she was a little fuzzy about how a wagon hammer was used. I directed her to a website which had an illustration showing how the wagon hammer connected the doubletree to the wagon's tongue. Anyone else who might be interested can find the web page HERE.
Although it could certainly be used to drive a nail, a wagon hammer wasn't really a hammer. It was a fastening pin which had a hammer shaped head. It worked like this:
The hammer head was on the pin to keep it from falling out. Over time the wagon hammer evolved into a wrench like configuration. In that incarnation the wagon wrench was a dual purpose implement. Its primary purpose was to fasten the doubletree to the tongue, but it was also used to tighten nuts on the wagon assembly. And if Nelson Watkins, a witness at the Almanac Trial, can be believed, it made a pretty good murder weapon, too.
Although it could certainly be used to drive a nail, a wagon hammer wasn't really a hammer. It was a fastening pin which had a hammer shaped head. It worked like this:
The hammer head was on the pin to keep it from falling out. Over time the wagon hammer evolved into a wrench like configuration. In that incarnation the wagon wrench was a dual purpose implement. Its primary purpose was to fasten the doubletree to the tongue, but it was also used to tighten nuts on the wagon assembly. And if Nelson Watkins, a witness at the Almanac Trial, can be believed, it made a pretty good murder weapon, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)