Among the legends that grew up
after Lincoln’s death, there is a story of Lincoln persuading a jury to ignore
the law in a case which he handled in 1847. According to the traditional story,
an elderly gentleman named either Cass or Case sold a “prairie team” to two
brothers named Snow. A prairie team consisted of a heavy duty plow for breaking
never-before cultivated prairie land and a team of oxen to pull it. The Snow
brothers signed a note for the team, which they refused to pay when it came
due. Cass hired Lincoln to sue on the note. The lawyers defending the Snows
interposed a plea of infancy and thus the issue was joined. At the trial it was
readily admitted that the brothers signed the note, but the defense called a
witness to testify that they were both under the age of 21.
Stymied and enraged
by the hyper-technical defense that the brothers’ crooked lawyers had interposed,
Lincoln supposedly gave a rousing final argument which convinced the jury to
ignore the law and find for the plaintiff in spite of the fact that the boys
were not legally obligated to pay the note. Lincoln accomplished this feat by
putting the brothers’ lawyer on trial.
Lincoln’s argument to the jury went something like this:
Gentlemen
of the jury: are you willing to allow these boys to begin life with this shame
and disgrace attached to their characters? If you are, I am not. The best judge
of human nature that ever wrote has left these immortal words for all of us to
ponder:
Who
steals my purse steals trash;‘tis something, nothing;
‘Twas
mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But
he that filches from me my good name,
Robs
me of that which not enriches him,
And
makes me poor indeed.
These
poor innocent boys would never have attempted this low villainy had it not been
for the advice of these men [their lawyers]. It was bad advice in morals and in
law. The law never sanctions cheating, and a lawyer must be very smart indeed
to twist the law so that it will sanction fraud.
After finishing a scathing
rebuke of the boys unscrupulous lawyers Lincoln concluded by saying “And now,
gentlemen, you have it in your power to set these boys right before the world.”
The jury was allegedly so moved by Lincoln’s tongue lashing of his opposing
counsel that they returned a verdict for the plaintiff without leaving their
seats; and the brothers were so repentant that they willingly paid the purchase
price. It is a pretty story of how the
saintly Lincoln achieved substantial justice, defeated the efforts of unethical
shysters, and set two wayward children on the path to an honorable life by
persuading the jury to ignore the law, but there is likely little truth in it.
What really happened, however,
demonstrates that Lincoln was not only a surgical cross-examiner but also a
careful pleader.
Mr. Cass did sell a prairie
team to the Snow brothers; they were under age at the time they signed the note
promising to pay for the team; Lincoln did file suit on Cass’s behalf; and the
brothers’ attorneys interposed the defense of infancy to defeat Cass’s claim
for payment of the note. Cass, however, had patiently allowed the Snow brothers
ample time to pay the note and only filed suit after going for two years
without being paid. All the defense had to do to defeat the claim on the note
was to produce a witness who could testify that the Snows were under 21 when
they signed the note.
As the defense witness
testified on direct examination, the presiding judge, Samuel H. Treat Jr.,
immediately saw the flaw in the defense. At the time of the trial the brothers
were undoubtedly over 21 and fully responsible for debts incurred as adults. If
they still had Cass’s prairie team, and they had not paid for it, they could be
compelled to pay the purchase price. A legally binding contract consists of an
offer and an acceptance. Cass offered to sell the team for a set price when the
boys were under age. They may not have been able to accept the team at the time
they took possession, but they made a legally binding acceptance of Cass’s
offer when they kept the oxen after coming of age. They owed Cass the money for
goods sold and delivered, but they did not owe money on the note they executed
when still under 21.
Treat saw that the case would
rise and fall on how Lincoln had worded the complaint. Common law pleading was
very strict. If Lincoln had filed a one count complaint simply alleging money
owed on the note, Judge Treat would be required to direct a verdict for the
defense. If, however, he had included a second count for goods sold and
delivered, he could collect the price of the prairie team notwithstanding his
inability to collect on the note.
When the defense witness
finished testifying on direct examination Treat asked Lincoln “Is there a count
in the declaration [complaint] for oxen and plow sold and delivered?”
Lincoln, ever the careful
pleader, replied “Yes, and I have only two or three questions to ask the
witness.” On cross-examination Lincoln then proceeded to prove that the
brothers still had the prairie team:
Q: Where
is the prairie team now?
A: On the
farm of the Snow boys.
Q: Have
you seen anyone breaking prairie with it lately?
A: Yes.
The Snow boys were breaking up with it last week.
Q: How
old are the boys now?
A: One is
a little over twenty-one, and the other is near twenty-three.
So we see that Lincoln won his
case through careful pleading and a surgical cross-examination; not by using
his considerable oratorical skill to convince the jury to ignore the law. We
can see that the heart and soul of Lincoln’s final speech did not come when he
allegedly castigated the defense lawyers, but when he said:
The judge
will tell you what your own sense of justice has already told you—that if those
boys were mean enough to plead the baby act when they came to be men, they at
least ought to have taken the oxen and plow back to Mr. Cass. They ought to
know that they cannot go back on their contract and also keep what the note was
given for.
The supposed tongue-lashing of
the Snow boys’ lawyers is more likely legend than fact. In the unlikely event
that Lincoln said anything unkind about the opposing lawyers, he must have said
it with his tongue in his cheek.
It is plain that the lawyers
defending the Snows did not persuade two innocent boys to make use of a sleazy
dodge to evade payment. The Snows were deadbeats. They had refused to pay the
bill for the oxen for two years before they got sued; and they certainly didn’t
hire or consult their lawyers until they got sued. Lincoln knew as well as
anyone that the lawyers interposed a valid legal defense when they pled the
“baby act;” and he knew that defense lawyers are ethically required to use
every lawful means to defend their clients.