payment as soon as the land was sold, and by letters from the plaintiffs allowing that grace.  As to the understanding upon which the notes were drawn, there was a direct issue of veracity for which Abe Lincoln was exceedingly well prepared.  He had gained possession of many facts in the history of the young speculator, including the important one that he had been convicted of fraud in New Orleans.  Mr. Lincoln’s cross-examination was as merciless as sunlight “falling round a helpless thing.”  It was kindly and polite in tone but relentless in its searching.  When it ended, the weight of Davis’s character had been accurately established.  In his masterly summing up Mr. Lincoln presented every circumstance in favor of the defendant’s position.  With remarkable insight he anticipated the arguments of his attorney.  He presented them fairly and generously to the court and jury.  According to Samson the opposing lawyers admitted in a private talk that Lincoln had thought of presumptions in favor of Davis which had not occurred to them.  Therein lay the characteristic of Mr. Lincoln’s method in a lawsuit.

* * * * *

“It was a safe thing for him to do for he never took a case in which justice was not clearly on his side,” Samson writes.  “If he had been deceived as to the merits of a case he would drop it.  With the sword of justice in his hand he was invincible.”

* * * * *

First he put the thing to be weighed on the scale fully and fairly.  Then, one by one, he put the units of gravity on the other side so that the court and jury saw the turning of the balance.

He covered the point at issue with a few words “every one of which drew blood,” to quote a phrase from the diary.  He showed that the validity of such claims rested wholly on the character of the man who made them, especially when they were opposed to the testimony of people whose honesty had been questioned only by that man.

“Now as to the secretary,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I honestly regret that he has disagreed with himself.  A young man ought not to disagree with himself as to the truth and especially when he contradicts the oath of witnesses whom we have no reason to discredit.  I want to be kind to him on account of his youth.  He reminds me of the young man who hired out to a Captain in Gloucester and shipped for the China coast and learned presently that he was on a pirate vessel.  He had been a young man of good intentions but he had to turn to and help the business along.  When the ship was captured he said: 

“I didn’t want to be a pirate, but there was only one kind o’ politics on that ship and the majority was so large I thought that the vote might as well be unanimous.  At first I was in favor of reform but the walkin’ was that bad I had to decide between a harp and a cutlass.’

“This parable serves to illustrate the history of most young men who fall into bad company.  The walking becomes more or less bad for them.  They get into the bondage of Fear.  We know not how it may have influenced the action of Cap’n Davis’s First Mate.  Probably since the hard times began, the walking has looked bad to him but still there was walking.  I am sorry it must be said that there was walking and I hope that he will now make some use of it.”