Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency

[David Lockmiller]

I got the book from the San Francisco Public Library by going on a waiting list for the first copies (I think that they ordered 11.)

I tried reading from the beginning and I thought it tedious.

There is only one good section that I found in the book. This was at the end of the trial when the trial judge was considering instructions to the jury. It justifiably appeared to Lincoln that the judge with his prefatory words was going to exclude the testimony of Reverend Cartwright that the deceased had told him as he was dying that he forgave the Reverend's nephew on trial for murder.

If the testimony had been excluded, Lincoln's client would have been found guilty by the jury and executed. Lincoln interrupted the judge and argued vehemently that the hearsay testimony should not be excluded by arguing that all of the evidence regarding the case should be heard by the jury. In the end, the judge "saw the error of his ways" and permitted the testimony.

What would have been the result upon Lincoln's political run for the presidency if Lincoln had lost the case? It could have been devastating and most assuredly his client would have been executed.