[caption id="attachment_2238" align="alignright" width="250" caption="The Lincoln Courtroom Museum in Beardstown"][/caption]
Illinois Lawyer Now recently toured the Lincoln Courtroom Museum in Beardstown, the only circuit courtroom still in use that Abraham Lincoln practiced in and the site of the famous Duff Armstrong "Almanac Trial" in 1858.
The Armstrong "Almanac Trial" as history tells it:
James Preston Metzker was savagely beaten at about 11 p.m. on Aug. 29, 1857, just outside a Methodist camp meeting near Walker's Grove in Madison County.
William Duff Armstrong and James Norris were charged with Metzker's murder. Armstrong was the son of Jack and Hannah Armstrong, Lincoln's dearest friends from his days in New Salem. When Hannah asked Lincoln to defend her son, he could only agree -- and represented the young man without a fee.
The trial took place in 1858. The weather was warm and it appeared the cards were stacked against Lincoln's client. After all, Norris had been found guilty the previous year.
The state's star witness was Charles Allen, who claimed to have witnessed the murder by the light of the moon.
Allen responded to Lincoln's questions by saying the moon was nearly full and high in the sky at 11 p.m. the night of the attack. He insisted the trees to the west of the attack site did not block the moon's light.
