Show LlNCOIJfS ELOQUENCE TIle Pnrt it and nn Almanac Played in a Celebrated Trial Copyright 1896 S S McClure Co The mostsensatio al criminal casein case-in which Abraham Lincoln was ever engaged was that In which he defended Duff Armstrong the son of the friends of his early years in Illinois against the charge of murder For years this case has figured with more or less detail de-tail in all biographies of Lincoln and it has been made the most prominent episode in at least one novel of western west-ern life Edward TSgglestons The Graysons Although the hero of the case Duff Armstrong is still livung no one has hasd c1f d 4 2Z 44C Or e2 7J5 t < > J 3 P J 1 Go J iw 4 > pv 4 p < w L 9 A C 44 I ft J j tv 4l Jr Cv A e 9j 4 62t A a izc4 p ft pw Z L y4 i a Md ie4 t0 d pi i4 94 2 lev fz hIad2zc L 1L rzcsZ 7 12I4 J FtiN k2dJ as 4 A MXCOIIVS IXSTHUCTIOISS TO THD JURY IX PHD AEMSPRONG CASE ever been able until now to get a statement state-ment from him for publication Mr J McCan Davis of Springfield Ill has however recently persuaded Armstrong to tell what he remembers of the broil in which he was supposed to have I murdered a companion and also of the trial in which Lincoln secured his release I re-lease Armstrong is now in his sixty third year and has long been a respected respect-ed citizen of the little village of Ashland Ash-land in which he spends most of his time He has been for several years a member of the Christian church His I trial for the murder of Pres Metzker is a subject he seldom talks about he I would fain forget St and those about him have not often been inquisitive DUFFS ACCOUNT OF HIS FIGHT WITH PRES METZKER Theaccounts hitherto printed he pronounces pro-nounces glaringly inaccurate This is his own story of the alleged murder and of the trial It was on a Saturday night and camp meeting was over for the day In the edge of the grove were three bars where liquor was sold Here gathered all the men and boys who cam to camp meeting to drink whisky and have a good time and a great jniany went for no other purpose 1 j been at the meeting two days and had been drinking drink-ing much but I was then b < becoming sober I was probably 10 oclock when I found a big goods box not far from the bars and I stretched myself out for a nights sleep Tip to this time Pre Metzker and I had been good friends but Pres had been drinking and was in an ugly mood He came along making a great i deal of noise and said to me Dn you get up Then he grabbed myjHlegs and pulled mo off In a fewjninytes he jerked me off again J I said Let me alone Pres I am sleepy He went aWy but boon came back and pulled me off a third time and took my hat threw it upon the ground and stamped it He said I had no business there that I ought to beat be-at ihime picking up chips for my ma I told him that was none of his business busi-ness and then I walked over to one of the long counters and called for a drink of whiskey He followed and just a I lifted the glass t my lips he caught me by the throat spilling the whiskey I set down my glass and turned around and said to him Pres if you do that again I will knock you down if you are bigger than I am you have run this thing far enough He had a loaded whip in his hand and was determined to have fight with me I hit him a terrible blow knock ing1 the skin fiom one of my knuckles We clinched and Pres rather got the best of me I was strong for one of my size and was able to catch him and throw him back over me He got up first and came at me again Then we fought like tigers At last he got me under him More than a hundred people stood by watching u fight and when the boys saw Pres was getting the best of me they pulled him off We walked up to the bar each taking a drink of whiskey we bumped glasses and were friends again But Pres had not gotten through with me As we stood there without any warning he hit me a blow on the upper lip He was going to hit me with a glass when another man said Set that down if you strike him with that glass I will kill you Then we parted Metzker stole a quilt from a buggy near by and wrapping it around him walked off to bed I saw nothing more of him until the next morning when he walked walk-ed to the bar with the stolen quilt still around him His right eye was swollen shut He bathed it with a glass of Whiskey drank another glass and then mounted his horse and rod away I Several days after that he died Then the officers came and arrested me and put me in jail I had a preliminary examination at Havana and was held without bail All the bad luck In thC world seemed to corns to me now On this very day my father Jack Armstrong died On his deathbed he said to my mother Hannah sell everything clear Duff These were almost his lat Words I was a kind of favorite with my ma and pa both I always staid at home with them LINCOLNS DEFENSE After the change of venue to Beards town Lincoln told my mother he would defend me At the trial I had about twentyfive witnesses The strongest witness against me was Charles Allen I He was the witness that swore about the moon he swore it was a full mood and almost overhead Uncle Abe asked him over and over about i but he stuck to it Then he said he saw me strike Metzker with a slungshot Uncle Un-cle Abe asked him to tell how it was done He got up and went through the motion struck an overhand blow just as he declared he saw me do by the light of the fuJI moon Uncle Abehad him do i over again After Allens testimony tes-timony everybody thoiight I would be convicted After Uncle Abe had talked to the jury a little while he said Now I will show you that this man Allens testimony is a pack of lies that he never saw Armstrong strike Metzker I with a slungshot that he did not witness wit-ness this fight by the light of the full moon for the moon was not In the heavens that night And then Uncle Abe pulled out the almanac and showed the jury the truth albout the moon I do not remember exactly what It was whether the moon had not risen or whether it had set but whatever what-ever it was itupset Allens story completely com-pletely He passed thq almanac to the jurors and they 1 janac Then Uncle Abe talked about the fight and showed that I had acted in selfdefense < > 1 i Q I and had used no weapon of any kind weapn But it seemed to me Uncle Abe did I his best talking when he told the jury I what true friends my father and I mother had been tohim lithe early I I days when he was apoor young man at New Salem Hfe told how < J heused to go out to Jack Armstrongs and stay for days how kind my mother was to him and how many a time he had rocked me to sleep in the old cradle He SId he was not there pleading plead-ing for me because he was pald for it but he wasthere to help a good woman who had helped him when he needed help Lawyer Walker made a good speech for me loo but Unqle Abes beat anything I even heard As Uncle Ate finishedhis speech he said I hope this man will be aT free man before sundown The jury retired and nearly everybody went to supper They left me there with the sheriff mybrother Jim and aparcel of boys The jury was In a room near by and It was not ovpr five minutes after they went out when I heard them talking and laughing and my heart treat a little faster As soon as the judge and lawyers got back from supper sup-per the jury was brought In They had to pass me and I eyed them closely close-ly for some hopeful sign One of them looked at me and winked Then I knew > it vas l right and when the foreman fore-man handed up the verdict of not guilty I was the hdppiestman in the world I reckon v AFTER THE TRIAL Now my mother was hot in the court room when the jury came in and it is all stuff about her fainting and falling into my arms She was away somewhere dont know just where That night sha went home with Jim Dick the sheriff I went home with Dick Overton and as we went down the court house steps he slipped a 5 bill into my hand Uncle a biI Abe wouldnot charge my mother a cent he said her happiness over my freedom was his sufficient reward The almanac used by Lincoln was one which my cousin Jake JOhes furnished fur-nished him On the morning of the trial I was taken outside the courtroom court-room t talk to Lincoln Jake Jones was with us Lincoln said he wanted an almanac for 1S57 Jake went right off and got one and brought it to Uncle Abe I was an almanac for the proper year and there was no fraud about it The truth is therewas no moon that night i there was it was hidden by clouds But it was Ijght enough fpr everybody to see tne fight The fight took place In front of one of the bars and each bar had two oi three candles on it I had no slung shot I never carried a weapon of any kindnever in my life Metzker had a loadad whip but he did not attempt to use it on me I was only a fistfight fist-fight and if I killed Pres Metzker 1 killed him with my naked fst The nigh after the trial Lincoln made a speech in Beardstown The next morning he got the judge and the lawyers and 1 the big men together togeth-er and then called me and my mother and commenced talk about old times He told me the first match he ever saw Jim Long of Petersburg had i He told about the Clarys Grove set and for an hour kept everybody laughing laugh-ing I remember his telling how Put Greene went off somewhere and sold r DUITF ARMSTRONG a horse for 535 When he got home he felt pretty llchso rich he hardly knew what to do with all his wealth and would gO around and ask the boys if they had any money I they said no as moct of them did Put would give them some This seemed very funny to Lincoln James H Norris was indicted With me for the killing of Metzker He was tried t Havana before my tiial was had New he had no more to do with the fight than any of the other bystanders by-standers but he had killed a man sometime before and had gotten cleat and everybody seemed to think this would be a good chance to give him his just deserts So they sent him to the penitentiary for eight years When the war broke out the four brothers of u enlisted In he army Jim was wounded at Belmont Pleasant a died I served on until near the end of the war when mother took a notion she wanted me People laughed at her when she said she would write to the president but she said Please goodness good-ness I aim agoing to try it She got Squire Garber of Petersburg to write to Uncle Abe and in a few days mother got a telegram signed A Lincoln Lin-coln telling her I had beenhonorably discharged At that time I was at Elmira N Y helDing pick up deserters desert-ers and a discharge was the last thing I was dreaming of |