A Solomon Come to Judgment
BY CHARLES W. MOORES
Lincoln's
practical sense and his understanding of human
nature enabled him to save the life of the son of his old
Clary's Grove friend, Jack Armstrong, who was on trial for
murder. Lincoln, learning of it, went to the old mother who
had been kind to him in the days of his boyhood poverty, and
promised her that he would get her boy free.
The witnesses were sure that Armstrong was guilty, and one
of them declared that he had seen the fatal blow struck. It
was late at night, he said, and the light of the full moon
had made it possible for him to see the crime committed.
Lincoln, on cross-examination, asked him only questions
enough to make the jury see that it was the
full moon that made it possible for the witness to see what
occurred; got him to say two or three times that he was sure
of it, and seemed to give up any further effort to save the
boy.
But when the evidence was finished, and Lincoln's time came
to make his argument, he called for an almanac, which the
clerk of the court had ready for him, and handed it to the
jury. They saw at once that on the night of the murder there
was no moon at all. They were satisfied that the witness had
told what was not true. Lincoln's case was won.
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