Inspiration from Abraham Lincoln
and the story behind
the Rockwell Painting
The occasion depicted in this Rockwell painting is
the 1858 murder trial of an Illinois man named William "Duff"
Armstrong. Armstrong was accused of murdering James Preston Metzker
with a “slung-shot" - a weight tied to a leather thong, sort of an
early blackjack - a few minutes before midnight on August 29, 1857.
Lincoln was a friend of the accused man's father, Jack Armstrong,
who'd just died, and so he offered to help defend young Duff
Armstrong, without pay, as a favor to Jack Armstrong's widow.
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. When 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."
Enter the Almanac!
Upon hearing Allen's testimony, Lincoln produced a
copy of the 1857 edition, 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. There would not have been enough light
for Allen to identify Armstrong or anyone else, said Lincoln. The
jury agreed, and Duff Armstrong was acquitted.
Lincoln
Quote Archives
“I am
glad of all the support I can get anywhere, if I can get
it without practicing any deception to obtain it.”
Quote attributed to Lincoln on
October 13, 1858.
“I
shall have my hands full. He is the strong man of his
party-full of wit, facts, dates-and the best stump
speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the
West. He is as honest as he is shrewd, and if I beat
him my victory will be hardly one.”
Senator Stephen A. Douglas, upon hearing that Lincoln
would be his opponent in Illinois’s 1858 U.S. Senate
vote.
“On
the underlying principles of truth and justice his will
was as firm as steel and as tenacious as iron.”
William Herndon, law partner and close friend of
Lincoln.
“You
have nominated a very able and very honest man.”
Stephen A. Douglas, upon hearing that the 1860
Republican Convention had nominated Lincoln for the
presidency.
“I’ll
study and get ready, and then the chance will come.”
Ida
M. Tarbell and J.M. Davis, The Early Life of Abraham
Lincoln (New York: McClure, 1989), 62
“Important principles may and must be inflexible.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 212 vols., (New York: Francis D. Tandy,
1905), 11:92 (April 11, 1865)
“The
most reliable indication of public purpose in this
country is derived through our popular elections.”
Basler, Collected Works of Lincoln, 8:138
“A
man’s character is like a tree and his reputation like
its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree
is the real thing.”
Don
Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds.,
Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1996), 43 (quote attributed
to Lincoln).
“I am
a patient man- always willing to forgive on the
Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample
time for repentance.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905)
7:293 (July 26, 1862).
“The
best training he [Lincoln] had for the Presidency, after
all, was his twenty three years’ arduous experience as a
lawyer traveling the circuits of the courts of his
district and State. Here he met in forensic conflict,
and frequently defeated, some of the most powerful legal
minds of the West. In the higher courts he won still
greater distinction in the important cases coming to his
charge.”
President McKinley at the Marquette Club, February 19,
1896.
“Our
political problem now is “Can we, as a nation, continue
together permanently- forever- half slave, and half
free?” The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in
his mercy, superintend the solution.”
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols, (New York; Francis D. Tandy, 1903),
2:280281 (August 15, 1855).
“The people know their
rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain
them, when they are invaded.”
John G. Nicolay and John
Hay, eds., Complete Works of Lincoln, 12 vols,
(New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905), 1:26 (January 11,
1837)
“We
proposed to give all a chance; and we expect the weak to
grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser, and all better, and
happier together.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lilncoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905),
2:184 (July 1, 1854)
“In
your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not
in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The
government will not assail you. You can have no
conflict without begin yourselves the aggressors. You
have no oath registered to heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn one to
“preserve, protect, and defend it.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols., (New York: Francis D. Tandy,
1905), 6:184-85 (March 4, 1861).
“In
small and unimportant matters, Mr. Lincoln was so
yielding that many thought his excessive amiability was
born of weakness. But, in matters of vital importance,
he was firm as a rock. Neither Congress nor his
cabinet could, in the slightest degree, influence his
actions on great questions, against the convictions of
his patriotic judgment.”
John B. Alley, congressman (R-MA) and
friend of Lincoln.
“It
was a common notion that those who laughed heartily
often never amounted to much- never made great men. If
this be the case, farewell to all my glory.”
William H. Herndon, “An Analysis of the Character of
Abraham Lincoln,” Abraham Lincoln Quarterly I
(1940-1941): 420 (quote attributed to Lincoln).
“Some
of my generals complain that I impair discipline by my
frequent pardons and reprieves; but it rests me, after a
day’s hard work, that I can find some excuse for saving
some poor fellow’s life, and I shall go to bed happy
tonight as I think how joyous the signing of this name
will make himself, his family, and friend.”
Allen
T. Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by
Distinguished Men of His Time, (New York: North
American Review, 1888), 338-39.
“I am
not at all concerned about that [that is, God’s being on
the Northern side in the war], for I know the Lord is
always on the side of the right. But it s my constant
anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on
the Lord’s side.”
F.B. Carpenter, Inner Life of Lincoln, (Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1883) 282 (quote attributed to
Lincoln).
“[Lincoln] was a master of
statement. Few have equaled him in the ability to strip
a truth of surplus verbiage and present it in its naked
strength.”
William Jennings
Bryant, politician and orator of the late nineteenth
century.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain
it.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905
5:126 (April 6, 1859).
“If
it is decreed that I should go down because of this
speech, then let me go down linked to the truth- let me
die in the advocacy of what is just and right.”
Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, 346 (quote
attributed to Lincoln).
“It
is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters
who choose to vote, that constitute the political power
of the State.”
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols., (New York; Francis D. Tandy, 1905)
8:157 (December 31, 1862)
“Finally, I insist, that if there is anything which it
is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any
hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and
perpetuity of their own liberties, and institutions.”
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905),
2:235 (October, 16 1854).
“If
you would win a man to your cause, first convince him
that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of
honey that catches his heart, which…when once gained,
you will find but little trouble in convincing his
judgment of the justice of your cause.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln (hereafter NH), 12 vols. (New York: Francis
D. Tandy, 1905), 1:197 (February 22, 1842)
“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false
accusations against us, nor frightened from it by
menaces of destruction to the government, nor of
dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right
makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to
do our duty as we understand it.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy,
1905), 5:327-28 (February 27, 1860).
"A
few people, in times of peace and quiet-when pressed by
no common danger- naturally divide into parties. At
such times, the man who is of neither party, is not-
cannot be- of any consequence."
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905),
2:165 (July 6, 1852)
“If a
man had more than one life, I think a little hanging
would not hurt this one, but after he is once dead we
cannot bring him back, not matter how sorry we may be,
so the boy shall be pardoned.”
Dorothy Lamon, ed. Recollections of Abraham
Lincoln1847-1865 by Ward Hill Lamon (Chicago: A.C.
McClung and Co., 1895) 87 (quote attributed to Lincoln).
"No
men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who
toil up from poverty- none less inclined to take, or
touch, aught which they have not honestly earned.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds. Complete Works of
Lincoln, 7:159 (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905).
“The
probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not
to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be
just.”
John
G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of
Lincoln, (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905) 1:138
(December 26, 1839).
“Let
there be no compromise on the question of extending
slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and ere
long, must be done again. The dangerous ground- that
into which some of our friends have a hankering to run-
is Popular Sovereignty. Have none of it. Stand firm.”
Basler, Collected Works
of Lincoln, 4:149 (December 10, 1860).
“There is something back of these, entwining itself more
closely about the human heart. That something is the
principle of “Liberty to all”- the principle that clears
that path for all, gives hope to all, and, by
consequence, enterprise and industry to all”
Basler, Collected Works of Lincoln, 4:169 (January
1861).
“The
people of these United States are the rightful masters
of both congresses and courts, not to overthrow the
Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the
Constitution.”
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds.,
Complete Words of Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York:
Francis D. Tandy, 1905), 5:232 (September 17, 1859)
“Must
is the word. I know not how to aid you, save in the
assurance of one of mature age, and much severe
experience, that you cannot fail, if you resolutely
determine that you will not.”
Basler, Collected Works of Lincoln, 4:87 (July
22, 1860).
“On principle I
dislike an oath which requires a man to swear he has not done
wrong. It rejects the Christian principle of forgiveness on terms
of repentance. I think it is enough if the man does no wrong
hereafter.”
Roy B. Basler,
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols., New Brunswick, New
Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953 7:170
“I do not state a
thing and say I know it when I do not….I mean to put a case no
stronger than the truth will allow.”
John G. Nicolay
and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of Lincoln, 12 vols. (New York:
Francis D. Tandy, 1905), 4:51 (July 15, 1858).
“I do not
consider that I have ever accomplished anything without God; and if
it is His will that I must die by the hands of an assassin, I must
be resigned. I must do my duty as I see it, and leave the rest with
God.”
Carl Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, 6 vols. (New York: Scribner’s
1939), 3:559 (quote attributed to Lincoln).
“I don’t want to
be unjustly accused of dealing illiberally or unfairly with an
adversary, either in court, or in a political canvass, or anywhere
else. I would despise myself if I supposed myself ready to deal
less liberally with an adversary than I was willing to be treated
myself.”
John G. Nicolay
and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of Lincoln, 4:190-91 (New York:
Francis D. Tandy, 1905) (September 18, 1858).
“I have often
inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept
this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of
the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something
in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this
country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that
which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted
from the shoulders of all men, so that all should have an equal
chance.”
John G. Nicolay
and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of Lincoln, 12 vols., (New York:
Francis D. Tandy, 1905); 6:157 (February 22, 1861).
“ “Liberty to
all”- the principle that clears the path for all- gives hope to all-
and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.”
Basler,
Collected Works of Lincoln, 4:168-69 (February 12, 1861).
"They were pillars
of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away,
that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their
places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober
reason. "
Source: John G.
Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of Lincoln, 12
vols. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905) I:49-50 (January 27, 1838).
Burlington County
Location: 12000 Lincoln Drive West
Suite 401
Marlton, NJ 08053
856.596.8000
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Haddon Hts., NJ 08035
856.354.2000
