interesting slice of lincolns life, basicallya transcript of the trial with a few anecdotes thrown in. sheds a little light on legal history in areas like self defense, deathbed testimony and hearsay ( )

Nothing short of amazing! ( )

Lincoln’s Last Trial, The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency, by Dan Abrams and David Fisher (pp 287). Notwithstanding the exaggeration of the book’s title, this is a fascinating look at Lincoln, with a focus on his trial work. Despite an imminent run for the presidency, Mr. Lincoln took on a murder trial that, if it had gone badly, might (!) have tarnished his reputation. He knew virtually everybody involved in the trial, including victim and perpetrator, the judge, opposing counsel, and witnesses. The author reports much of the trial from the perspective of the court stenographer, Mr. Robert Hitt. Hitt was a bit of personality himself, having gained a degree of fame for his transcriptions of some of the Lincoln - Douglas debates, and be snd a friend and colleague of Lincoln. His accurate transcript of the trial helped make the trial especially noteworthy and provided the detail that brings the back and forth of sometimes dry court procedure to life. Lincoln’s defense of Peachy Quinn Harrison against a charge of murder was successful, and the credit for victory lay more in Lincoln’s rhetorical skill than in the cases’s facts or the law. The author included some elements of the evolution of evidentiary procedure in a way that, surprisingly, was both enlightening and insightful. This book provides a peek at Lincoln as an attorney, more nuanced and detailed than many others that are written in broad strokes and which focus more on his manner and personality than his understanding of the law and an ability to argue the law in ways that made sense to often unsophisticated juries. ( )

It would seem that at this late date there would be nothing new to say about the life of Abraham Lincoln, but of course that is not true as new information is discovered all the time which shines light on a heretofore unexplored aspect of this greatest, and most consequential, of Americans lives. That is why LINCOLN’S LAST TRIAL, by Dan Abrams and David Fisher, is so interesting, especially for those who can’t get enough of Lincoln. Based upon a firsthand meticulous record by professional stenographer Robert Roberts Hitt, the book is an account of an 1859 murder trial in Springfield, Illinois, which puts the spotlight on Lincoln the defense lawyer as few books ever have.

The defendant in the trial was a young man named Peachy Quinn Harrison, the grandson of a revivalist preacher who had been a staunch political opponent of Lincoln’s, while the victim, Greek Grafton, studied law in Lincoln’s office. There had been something of a feud going between the families of the victim and the accused, and youthful passions, seem to have gotten the better of Greek, who made public threats against Peachy. A fateful encounter in a local store left Greek mortally wounded by Peachy’s knife. The latter, who was physically smaller than Greek, claimed self defense, but the law, at the very least, said it was manslaughter. It became a question for a jury to decide. Much of the drama came from the fact that everyone involved – the defense lawyers, the prosecutor, the judge, the members of the jury, the witnesses, the families of the victim and the accused – had all known each other for years, as Springfield was still very much a small town at the end of the 1850s.

Though there is no Perry Mason moment, Abrams and Fisher weave a good tight courtroom drama thanks to the transcript Hitt left behind, which wasn’t discovered until 1989. The authors give us look at what life was like in America just before the Civil War, a time when the country was still dominated by small towns and farms, where communities were close knit, with strong ties to the land. The book is also short history lesson in American justice, and how our legal system developed. The other characters beside Lincoln are well rendered inside the pages, and we all but feel the heat of the late summer of 1859. The best thing the book does is give us a fuller picture of Lincoln the lawyer, and his talent as a communicator, which served him very well when summing up the case before the jury, just as it would serve him very well in the political arena.

LINCOLN’S LAST CASE flows like a novel; that is because Abrams and Fisher fill in between the lines of Hitt’s transcript by giving us “deductions” as to what certain characters are doing or thinking at any given time. It’s a liberty the authors are entitled to take, but they do blur the line between fiction and non-fiction for many readers. They also claim that the trial is the case “that propelled” Lincoln to the Presidency. But they don’t back that up and it feels like hyperbole. Lincoln was fresh off his race for the Senate in Illinois the year before, where his debates with Stephen Douglas had already brought him national fame and attention. Lincoln was very much a dark horse candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination by the time the trial commenced. But those are trivial faults, as it is, Dan Abrams and David Fisher’s book is a must read for any Lincoln fan and American history buff. ( )

This book by lawyer Dan Abrams focuses on Abraham Lincoln’s last major trial as a working lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s client, “Peachy” Quinn Harrison, was accused of killing Greek Crafton in a fracas at a local Splringfield store. The story centers on the self defense laws at the time. The protagonist, strangely enough, is really not the two litigants in the trial; it’s the court reporter, Robert Roberts Hitt. Hitt, who went on to an illustrious career including several terms in Congress, proves to be a dogged recorder of the trial’s testimony. Hitt got the job based on his transcription of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which happened shortly before the trial. It’s easy to forget how import the role of the court reporter was in this age of audio and video recording devices, bit in the 19th Century, these people were crucial to the recording of historical events. This book is essentially based on that record which was discovered in Hitt’s great grandson’s garage in 1989. The story will give any reader not only a respect for this man, but it will show a side of Honest Abe we really haven’t seen much of, that of talented attorney. ( )