Abraham Lincoln's 1858 Almanac Murder Case.

Abraham Lincoln defends an alleged murderer in the 1858 trial of an Illinois man named William “Duff” Armstrong. Armstrong was accused of murdering James Preston Metzker by striking him on the back of the head with a “slung-shot”—a weight tied to a leather thong, sort of an early blackjack—a few minutes before midnight of August 29, 1857. 

Metzger managed to make his way home from the camp the next morning, falling from his horse several times. When a doctor examined the injured Metzker they found that his skull was fractured in two places. Metzger died of his injuries two days later.

Lincoln was a friend of the accused man’s father, Jack Armstrong, who’d just died, and so he offered to help defend Duff Armstrong, a twenty-four-year-old farmer from Menard County. Abe worked Pro Bono, as a favor to Jack Armstrong’s widow.

NOTE: You didn’t need a law degree to practice law in the early 19th century. Abe borrowed legal treatises from a colleague in the Illinois legislature, took an oral exam, and was licensed to practice law in 1836.

The trial was held in Beardstown, Illinois. The principal prosecution witness against Armstrong was a man named Charles Allen, who testified that he’d seen the murder from about 150 feet away. Lincoln asked Allen how he could tell it was Armstrong given that it was the middle of the night and he was a considerable distance away from the murder scene.

Allen replied, “By the light of the Moon.”

Upon hearing Allen’s testimony, Lincoln produced a copy of the 1857 almanac, turned to the two calendar pages for August, and showed the jury that not only was the Moon in the first quarter but it was riding “low” on the horizon, about to set, at the precise time of the murder.

He argued that the witness could not possibly have had enough light to see what he claimed and asked the judge to take “Judicial Notice”[1] of the moon’s low position. The judge agreed and the jury found Armstrong not guilty. Duff Armstrong was acquitted.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Judicial Notice is a rule in the law of evidence that allows a fact to be introduced into evidence if the truth of that fact is so notorious or well known, or so authoritatively attested, that it cannot reasonably be doubted. This is done upon the request of the party seeking to rely on the fact at issue. 

Lincoln's Attachment to the Wide-Awake Political Club.

The Wide-Awake Political Party was a youth organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election.

In 1858, young men from Hartford, Connecticut, organized bodyguards for Republican candidates campaigning through the streets of the Democratic city. They called themselves the Wide-Awakes. Two years later hundreds of thousands of Wide-Awakes in military gear were practicing infantry drills, marching in torchlight parades, and helping to elect Abraham Lincoln. Their drills became so ubiquitous that when a minor earthquake struck Boston, many assumed it was just the Wide-Awakes marching on the Common. They liked military regalia and wore military-style caps and sashes along with shiny oil-cloth capes. The capes protected them from the leaky, six-foot whale oil torches they carried on parade. The spectacle of large, torch-bearing paramilitary units supporting Abraham Lincoln alarmed southerners. To them, the Wide-Awakes represented northern aggression.

In March of 1860, five young Wide-Awakes went to hear Abraham Lincoln speak at Hartford City Hall. He said he opposed slavery and supported workers’ rights to strike. The young men liked what they heard, and after the speech, they escorted him by torchlight to the home of Mayor Tom Allyn. The Lincoln campaign team knew a good thing when they saw it. They started to organize Wide-Awake clubs for young Republican men to register and to get out the vote.

Soon after Lincoln’s speech in Hartford, the Wide-Awakes started receiving unsolicited letters from people wanting to start their own company. Henry Sperry, a 23-year-old aspiring newspaper editor, wrote hundreds of fliers, letters, and editorials. James Chalker, a 28-year-old textile salesman, sold 20,000 Wide-Awake uniforms during the campaign. Oilcloth for shiny capes grew scarce because of such high demand.

Hundreds of thousands of young men throughout the country donned Wide-Awake uniforms and performed military maneuvers in parades. Many were clerks, farmers, and factory workers, and nearly all had a fascination with martial culture. They called their clubs ‘companies,’ and they had ranks, officers, duties, and a drill manual. They adopted the image of a large eyeball as their standard-bearer. And they had mottoes: “Free soil for Freemen,” “The Territories must be free to the people,” “Free Homesteads,” “River and Harbor improvements,” and “Protection to American Industries.”

Republicans bragged that they had Wide-Awake chapters in every county of every free [Northern] state. By the day of Lincoln's election as president, there were said to be over 500,000 Wide-Awake members. Newly registered and young voters were targeted to bring votes to the Republican Party. The group remained active for several decades.

Soon after Lincoln’s speech in Hartford, the Wide-Awakes started receiving unsolicited letters from people wanting to start their own company. Henry Sperry, a 23-year-old aspiring newspaper editor, wrote hundreds of fliers, letters, and editorials. James Chalker, a 28-year-old textile salesman, sold 20,000 Wide-Awake uniforms during the campaign. Oilcloth for shiny capes grew scarce because of such high demand.

The clubs spread through central Connecticut and wherever the contests were close between Democrats and Republicans: New Hampshire, southern New York, southern New Jersey, and central Illinois extending to Wisconsin. In Republican strongholds like Massachusetts and Vermont, the Wide-Awakes didn’t do so well. Sperry wrote a letter explaining why: “Wherever the fight is hottest, there is their post of duty, and there the Wide-Awakes are found.” Each company had about 100 enthusiastic young men. They met several times a week in headquarters, often above a storefront. The clubs provided excitement and camaraderie. A 20-year-old Connecticut carriage maker jotted that he’d “had a very fine time” at a Wide-Awake parade. In May, the Wide-Awakes made a splash in Chicago during the Republican convention with a torchlight parade. Afterward, a company started in Bangor, Maine. A local druggist marketed Dr. Allen’s Balsamic Cough Lozenges to cure the hoarseness caused by shouting at political rallies. On July 26, 1860, the Hartford Wide-Awakes held a banquet for 5,000 fellow members from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

As the election neared in October, 10,000 Wide-Awakes marched in a torchlight procession three miles long. The Chicago Tribune devoted eight columns to the spectacle. The Democrats tried to find an answer for the Wide-Awakes. They formed their own marching clubs, called the "Ever Readys," Douglas Guards, Little Giants, and Invincibles. But none of the Democratic clubs matched the impact of the Wide-Awakes. By November, the club had hundreds of thousands of members. Some estimates put their numbers at 500,000. Contemporary politicians credited them with bringing young voters into the Republican fold. 

After Lincoln won the presidential election, some of the Wide-Awake companies disbanded. Others offered to escort him to Washington. Southerners viewed their persistence with alarm, thinking it a prelude to an invasion of their region. South Carolinians formed Minute Men militias to counteract the Wide-Awakes. Perhaps the southerners weren’t far wrong. When the Civil War broke out, 80% of the original Hartford company volunteered for military service.

Republicans bragged that they had Wide-Awake chapters in every county of every Northern (free) state. By the day of Lincoln's election as president, there were 500,000 Wide-Awake members and new, young voters into the Republican fold. The group remained active for several decades.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.