mind. Took it as far as Portland Landing.
“And the day we reached Portland Landing and docked there, we had a big celebration here in Springfield, on the green right outside of this building, in fact. We had fireworks and a band and a busthead cask or two. I know Your Honor was here,” Lincoln said, nodding to the judge, who glowered back, “and Barton . . . and Sharp and”—Lincoln looked down the row of jurors—“Alkire. I reckon each of you was here that day too.
“Those of you who were here remember well, I’m sure—and I’m confessing to the rest of you—what happened next. How the wages of my vanity were paid. Because no sooner had I knocked out the head of the second cask of beer but a little boy comes running up to me, saying”—Lincoln took on the falsetto voice of a small child—“‘Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln, you’ve got to come quick.’
“‘Not now,’ I said to him, ‘because I’m celebrating my great accomplishment.’ Notice I said my great accomplishment, not our great accomplishment. My accomplishment.
“‘’Taint no ’complishment at all,’ the boy said back to me, ‘’specially not since the river’s dropping so fast that great ol’ steamer is gonna be stuck here ’til the fall rains come.’”
Lincoln bent over, hands on his knees, and shouted with laughter. “Wouldn’t you know it?” he said, looking with eyes crinkling with delight at the jury, then out toward the gallery, where many of the spectators were smiling along with him now, “but the little urchin was one hundred percent right. The river level was dropping. And fast.
“Those of you who were here know what happened next. Everyone at the spree galloped back to the river, back to Portland Landing. I jumped aboard the steamer, and as soon as we got the fire burning again, we cast off and I turned the boat around in the river, scraping the river-bottom with every fathom we moved. And we retreated down the river as fast as we could. But the river was dropping even faster. When we got to New Salem—my New Salem, the village I thought I was going to make famous with my exploits aboard the Talisman—we had to take ten sticks of dynamite and blow up the mill-dam, blow it to the high heavens, just to get enough flow in the river so we could limp back to Beardstown and the deep waters of the Illinois. We did make it back there in the end, but only barely, and I don’t know how much thickness that poor, battered hull had left when we did.”
Lincoln had been roaming around the well as he told his story, but now he came to a halt a few feet from the jury. Every member was looking up at him in rapt attention. “I was sure I knew what I was doing,” he said, “taking command of the Talisman and steaming it so far upriver. I was sure of myself. And I was wrong.”
Lincoln gazed up and down the row of jurors to make certain none had missed his meaning. When he had looked into the eyes of each of the twelve gentlemen, he turned on his heel and walked rapidly over to the counsel table where Dr. Patterson sat. Lincoln rested his large hand on Patterson’s shoulder and faced the jury again.
“Now, I readily concede,” Lincoln continued, “there is evidence against my client. My brother Prickett described some of it to you this morning, and I don’t doubt we’ll hear more this afternoon. Much more, I expect.” I saw Jane Patterson stiffen. “There is evidence against Dr. Patterson, but I am not sure he’s guilty.” Lincoln paused for a moment and added, more quietly, “Are you?”
“All I desire, as you hear the evidence, is you ask yourself that question. Are you sure—do you know beyond all reasonable doubt—the doctor is guilty of the heinous crimes with which he’s charged? Are you sure? Or are you like my younger self, feeling sure of something, wanting to be sure of something, when in fact it is not the truth?
“There was a fellow over in England in the last century who knew a thing or two about the law, and he wrote it all down in some big, heavy books judges like Judge Thomas up there like to take a look at, even today, when they’re trying to figure out some complicated legal question. The fellow’s name was William Blackstone, Lord Blackstone, in fact. And one of the