OCRed data provided
for searching only. 708 april 1882
two or three yoke of oxen and prairie plow, giving therefore their joint note for some two hundred dollars; but when pay-day came refused to pay, pleading the minor act. The note was placed in Lincoln's hands for collection. The suit was called and a jury impanelled. The Snow Bros. did not deny the note, but pleaded through their counsel that they were minors, and that Mr. Case knew they were at the time of the contract and conveyance. All this was admitted by Mr. Lincoln, with his peculiar phrase, ¿Yes, gentlemen, I reckon that's so.î The minor act was read and its validity admitted in the same manner. The counsel of the defendants were per‚mitted without question to state all these things to the jury, and to show by the statute that these minors could not be held responsible for their contract. By this time you may well suppose that I began to be uneasy. ¿What!î thought I, ¿this good old man, who con‚ded in these boys, to be wronged in this way, and even his counsel, Mr. Lincoln, to submit in silence!î I looked at the court, Judge Treat, but could read nothing in his calm and digni‚ed demeanor. Just then, Mr. Lincoln slowly got up, and in his strange, half-erect attitude and clear, quiet accent began: ¿Gentlemen of the Jury, are you willing to allow these boys to begin life with this shame and disgrace attached to their character? If you are, I am not. The best judge of human character that ever wrote has left these immortal words for all of us to ponder:
¿Good name in man or woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing:
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that ‚lches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.î
Then rising to his full height, and looking upon the defendants with the com‚passion of a brother, his long right arm extended towards the opposing counsel, he continued: ¿Gentlemen of the jury, these poor innocent boys would never have attempted this low villany had it not been for the advice of these lawyers.î Then for a few minutes he showed how even the noble science of law may be prostitut‚ed. With a scathing rebuke to those who thus belittle their profession, he concluded: ¿And now, gentlemen, you have it in your power to set these boys right before the world.î He plead for the young men only; I think he did not mention his client's name. The jury, without leaving their seats, decided that the defendants must pay the debt; and the latter, after hearing Lincoln, were as willing to pay it as the jury were determined they should. I think the entire argument lasted not above ‚ve minutes.
H&W (1889), 619¬20
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