"Springfield, Ohio, September 18, ——.

"Dear Mrs. Armstrong:—I have just heard of your deep affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can hardly believe that he can be guilty of the crime alleged against him. It does not seem possible. I am anxious that he should have a fair trial, at any rate; and gratitude for your long-continued kindness to me in adverse circumstances prompts me to offer my humble services gratuitously in his behalf. It will afford me an opportunity to requite, in a small degree, the favors I received at your hand, and that of your lamented husband, when your roof afforded me grateful shelter without money and without price.

"When the trial was called the prisoner was pale and emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature. He was accompanied by his half-hoping, half-despairing mother, whose only hope was in a mother's belief of her son's innocence, in the justice of the God she worshiped, and in the noble counsel, who, without hope of fee or reward upon earth, had undertaken the case."

"Mr. Lincoln sat quietly by while the large auditory looked on him as though wondering what he could say in defense of one whose guilt they regarded as certain. The examination of the witnesses for the State was begun, and a well-arranged mass of evidence, circumstantial and positive, was introduced, which seemed to impale the prisoner beyond the possibility of extrication. The strongest evidence was that of a man who belonged to the rough element, who swore that at eleven o'clock at night he saw Armstrong strike the deceased on the head, that the moon was shining brightly, and was nearly full, and that its position in the sky was just about that of the sun at ten o'clock in the morning, and that by it he saw Armstrong give the mortal blow.

"The counsel for the defense propounded but few questions, and those of a character which excited no uneasiness on the part of the prosecutor—merely, in most cases, requiring the main witness to be definite as to time and place.

"When the evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lincoln introduced a few witnesses to remove some erroneous impressions in regard to the previous character of his client, who, though somewhat rowdyish, had never been known to commit a vicious act; and to show that a greater degree of ill feeling existed between the accuser and the accused than the accused and the deceased.

"The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, and his opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, while a deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and in a clear, but moderate tone, began his argument. Slowly and carefully he reviewed the testimony, pointing out the hitherto unobserved discrepancies in the statements of the principal witness. That which had seemed plain and plausible, he made to appear as a serpent's path. The witness had stated that the affair took place at a certain hour in the evening, and that, by the aid of the brightly-shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict the death blow."

"An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been wrought in the minds of the auditors, and the verdict of 'not guilty' was at the end of every tongue. But the advocate was not content with this intellectual achievement. His whole being had for months been bound up in this work of gratitude and mercy, and, as the lava of the overcharged crater bursts from its imprisonment, so great thoughts and burning words leaped from the soul of the eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjurer, so horrid and ghastly that the accuser could sit under it no longer, but reeled and staggered from the court-room, while the audience fancied they could see the brand upon his brow. Then, in words of thrilling pathos, Lincoln appealed to the jurors, as fathers of sons who might become fatherless, and as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to yield to no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do his client justice. As he alluded to the debt of gratitude he owed the boy's dead father and his living widowed mother, tears were seen to fall from many eyes unused to weep. It was near night when he concluded by saying that if justice was done,—as he believed it would be,—before the sun should set it would shine upon his client a free man.

"The jury retired, and the court adjourned for the day. Half an hour had not elapsed when a messenger announced that the jury had returned to their seats. All repaired immediately to the court-house, and while the prisoner was being brought from the jail, the court-room was filled to overflowing with citizens of the town. When the prisoner and his mother entered, silence reigned as completely as though the house were empty. The foreman of the jury, in answer to the usual inquiry from the court, delivered the verdict of 'Not guilty.'

"The widow dropped into the arms of her son, who lifted her up, and told her to look upon him as before, free and innocent. Then with the words, 'Where is Mr. Lincoln?' he rushed across the room, and grasped the hand of his deliverer, while his heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned his eyes toward the west, where the sun still lingered in view, and then, turning to the youth, said, 'It is not yet sundown, and you are free.' An eye-witness says: 'I confess that my cheeks were not wholly unwet by tears as I turned from the affecting scene. As I cast a glance behind, I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the divine injunction, by comforting the widowed and the fatherless.'"

"Havana, Illinois, August 22, 1908.

"Rev. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir:—Your letter directed to the postmaster of this place, dated August 18, 1908, was handed to me by the postmaster, Mr. Oscar Harpham, and he requested me to answer your letter.

"You ask for the names of the lawyers in Havana, who, in connection with Abraham Lincoln, defended Duff Armstrong in the Circuit Court of Cass County, Illinois, held in Beardstown, in 1858. In answer, I will state that the undersigned, Lyman Lacey, Sr., was one of the two lawyers who was employed to defend said Armstrong. Our firm name was Walker and Lacey, and we were practicing law in Havana, Mason County, Illinois, at the time in partnership, and had been so engaged at the time of the trial since 1856. Mr. Walker's given name was William. In 1865, Mr. William Walker removed to Lexington, State of Missouri, where he practiced law, and was county judge part of the time, and, a few years ago, died.

"I am the only attorney who practiced and was employed to defend Armstrong, yet alive. I am in the practice of law now, and am in good health, and on the 9th day of May last was seventy-six years old. Was about twenty-six years old at the time of trial of the Armstrong case in Beardstown, and my partner, some years older than myself, was the senior member of our firm. He attended the trial in Beardstown with Lincoln. I was not present, but stayed at home in the office in Havana.

"Mason and Cass counties join, and the crime of killing Metzker, for which Armstrong was indicted, took place in Mason County, and the indictment against Armstrong was found in this county, and a change of venue was taken to Cass County, which was in the same judicial district.

"I was well acquainted with Hannah Armstrong, mother of "Duff," with whom Lincoln had boarded in Menard County, which also joins Mason, when he was a young man, and before he was a lawyer, That was the reason Lincoln would not charge anything for defending her son. Our firm, Walker and Lacey, did not charge her anything for our services. "Duff" could not pay. His mother employed us and Lincoln. Lincoln and our firm consulted together about the defense, and Walker assisted at the trial.

"I would be glad to give you any information in regard to the trial and the parties in the Armstrong case. It was quite celebrated, and things have been told that were not true.

"In regard to myself, in 1873 I was elected judge of the Circuit Court, and elected three times afterwards, and served in all twenty-four years. By appointment of the Supreme Court of this State, I served twenty years on the Appellate Court bench. I retired from the bench in 1897.

"Havana, Illinois, September 1, 1908.

"Rev. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir:—Your letter of August 26th, was duly received, and contents noted. I wish to state to you that William Duff Armstrong was duly and jointly indicted with James H. Norris in the Circuit Court of Mason County, Illinois, for the murder of Metzker, October 3, 1857. Hugh Fullerton, of Mason County, was State's attorney and prosecutor, and is long since deceased. Norris was unable to employ an attorney, not having the necessary means. According to the laws of Illinois, in such case the circuit judge appoints an attorney at law to defend him, and the attorney is obliged to defend the prisoner without compensation. Accordingly the court appointed William Walker, my law partner, to defend Norris, which he did. Norris was tried before a jury of twelve men in Mason County, and said jury, on the 5th of November, convicted him of manslaughter, and fixed the time he should serve in the penitentiary as eight years, and the judge sentenced him to serve that time in the penitentiary at hard labor, which he did, less time gained by good behavior.

"William Duff Armstrong was granted a change of venue, November 5, 1857, to Cass County, Illinois, and was tried the next spring. William Walker and myself were employed by Hannah Armstrong and Duff to defend him in Cass County, Illinois. I cannot state for certain whether 'Aunt Hannah' first sought the advice and help of Lincoln, or whether Lincoln first volunteered his services, but my recollection is that she first sought his aid. I understood after the trial of Duff that Mr. Lincoln told her he would make no charge for his services, because, he told her, she had spent more time, while he boarded with her, in darning his stockings and mending his clothes, than he had in defending her son in the trial, and as she never charged him anything, he would not charge her for his services.

"You know that 'Old Abe,' as he was called, was a humorous kind of a man. At one time when I was in Beardstown, at a term of court, looking after the Armstrong case, Lincoln was also there, and the judge, who had to come down on a steamboat from Pekin on the Illinois River, was long delayed. Lincoln and myself were at the same hotel in Beardstown, waiting for the judge, when Lincoln became very uneasy, and walked backward and forward, slowly, at the door of the hotel, when finally he spelled out—'t-e-j-u-s, t-e-j-u-s,' pronouncing the word as spelled twice.

"In regard to the almanac question, there was a witness who testified that after eleven o'clock, when the moon was shining brightly, he saw Duff Armstrong strike Metzker with a club. Lincoln and my partner, William Walker, introduced the almanac of 1857, showing that the moon set before eleven o'clock, which proved that the witness was swearing to a falsehood as regarded the shining of the moon. Now some one started the story that the almanac introduced was not one of the date of 1857, but of a former date showing the setting of the moon before eleven o'clock.... My partner, Walker, would have told me about it if such a trick had been performed at the trial, but he never did. Some years ago, I examined an almanac of 1857, which showed the setting of the moon was before eleven o'clock, and that it was the right almanac to introduce. A year or two before Duff Armstrong died, I had a conversation with him in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois, and he said there was no truth in the story that an almanac of a different date than 1857 was introduced. The above charge is untrue, and is what I referred to in my former letter....

"I practiced law with Herndon in the 'fifties and the 'sixties, and he often talked to me about Lincoln, whom he liked very much, and afterward wrote his history. [Herndon was Lincoln's law partner twenty years.]

"At the time of the Armstrong trial, Lincoln was not looked upon as the great man he is to-day, only that he was a very good and successful lawyer. No one ever dreamed that he would be President. He was a man of great common sense, and an amusing story-teller. He knew how to please the common people, and everybody liked him personally.