Isaac N. Arnold

“ I have said an hundred times that it was Lincoln's speech that saved that criminal from the gallows." He pictured to the jury the old Armstrong home, the log cabin at New Salem; the aged mother, her locks silvered with time, was sitting by his side, as he spoke; all the associations of those early days came thronging up, his own feelings were thoroughly roused, and when he was once thus roused, his personal magnetism was well nigh irresistible. None but men of the strongest will could stand against his appeals. The jury in this case knew and loved Lincoln, and they could not resist him. ”

“ Let him remember he sits where Washington sat, and so remembering let him answer as Washington would answer..."
"But if the President," he said, "trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye that charms to destroy, plunged into it (the war) and was swept on and on till disappointed in the ease with which Mexico might be enslaved, be now finds himself he knows not where." ”

“ Lincoln contended, among other positions, that the girl was free by virtue of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwestern Territory, of which Illinois was a part, as well as by the constitution of the state, which prohibited slavery. He insisted that, as it appeared from the record that the consideration of the note was the sale of a human being in a free state, the note was void; that a human being in a free state could not be the subject of sale. The court, the opinion given by Judge Breese, reversed the judgment. ”

“ Some can speak, some sing, and all can hallo!" He went to New York and New England, speaking often and earnestly for Taylor. Returning, he spoke with great effect in Illinois and other parts of the West during the canvass. General Taylor's election inspired hopes that the extension of slavery might be stopped, and that the administration might be brought back to the policy of prohibiting it in the territories.
The most important and significant act of Lincoln at this Congress, was the introduction by him into the House, of a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. ”

“ He had brought an action in behalf of an old man named Case, against the Snow boys, to recover the amount of a note given them in payment for what was known as a "prairie team." This consists of a breaking plow and two or three yoke of oxen, making up a team strong enough to break up the strong, tough, thick turf of the prairie. The defendants, the Snow boys, appeared by their counsel and plead that they were infants, or minors, when the note was given. On the trial Lincoln produced the note, and it was admitted that it was given for the oxen and plow. ”

“ The first impression a stranger meeting him or hearing him speak would receive, was that of a kind, sincere and genuinely good man, of perfect truthfulness and integrity. He was one of those men whom everybody liked at first sight. ”

“ In a certain way she looked upon him as her boy, and she believed in him. Lincoln, and Lincoln only, as she thought, could save Bill from disgrace and death; he could do anything. She went to Springfield, and begged him to come and save her son. He at once relieved her by promising to do all he could.
The trial came on at Beardstown, in the spring of 1858. The evidence against Bill was very strong. Indeed, the case for the defence looked hopeless. ”

“ Allow me to assure you that suspicions and jealousy never did help any man in any station." And it may be truthfully added, as will hereafter appear, that no man was ever more free from these faults than Lincoln.
On the 12th of January, 1848, he made an able and elaborate speech on the Mexican war, which established his reputation in Congress as an able debater. Douglas, long afterwards, in their joint debate at Ottawa, charged him with taking the side of the enemy against his own country in this Mexican war. ”

“ I was about as badly scared, and no more than when I speak in court." Writing to his partner again soon after, he gave the young gentleman some very good advice. "The way for a young man to rise," said he, "is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting anybody wishes to hinder him. ”

“ Lincoln well and intimately, and we were both ardent supporters of General Taylor for President in 1848. Mr. Lincoln, Toombs, Preston, myself and others, formed the first Congressional Taylor club, known as 'The Young Indians,' and organized the Taylor movement, which resulted in his nomination..."
"Mr. Lincoln was careful as to his manners, awkward in his speech, but was possessed of a very strong. clear, vigorous mind." ”

“ Mr. Henry Shaw says (see Lamon's Lincoln, p. 330) , "I have seen several of the jury, who sat in the case, who only recollect that the almanac floored the witness..."
"My own opinion is that Lincoln was entirely innocent of any deception in the matter. Mr. Milton Logan, the foreman of the jury, says that he is willing to make an affidavit that the almanac was of the year of the murder." Shaw adds: "Armstrong was not cleared by want of testimony against him, but by the irresistible appeal of Mr. Lincoln" to the jury.↑ See McCormick vs. ”