Lincoln's Defense of Duff Armstrong: The Story of the Trial and The Celebrated Almanac

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.