Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to

Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency

Instant New York Times bestseller!
A Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite Book of 2018
A Suspense Magazine Best Book of 2018
A Mental Floss Best Book of 2018
A USA Today Top 10 Hot Book for Summer

â€œMakes you feel as if you are watching a live camera riveted on a courtroom more than 150 years ago.â€ â€”Diane Sawyer

The true story of Abraham Lincolnâ€™s last murder trial, a case in which he had a deep personal involvementâ€”and which played out in the nationâ€™s newspapers as he began his presidential campaign

At the end of the summer of 1859, twenty-two-year-old Peachy Quinn Harrison went on trial for murder in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, who had been involved in more than three thousand casesâ€”including more than twenty-five murder trialsâ€”during his two-decades-long career, was hired to defend him. This was to be his last great case as a lawyer.

What normally would have been a local case took on momentous meaning. Lincolnâ€™s debates with Senator Stephen Douglas the previous fall had gained him a national following, transforming the little-known, self-taught lawyer into a respected politician. He was being urged to make a dark-horse run for the presidency in 1860. Taking this case involved great risk. His reputation was untarnished, but should he lose this trial, should Harrison be convicted of murder, the spotlight now focused so brightly on him might be dimmed. He had won his most recent murder trial with a daring and dramatic maneuver that had become a local legend, but another had ended with his client dangling from the end of a rope.

The case posed painful personal challenges for Lincoln. The murder victim had trained for the law in his office, and Lincoln had been his friend and his mentor. His accused killer, the young man Lincoln would defend, was the son of a close friend and loyal supporter. And to win this trial he would have to form an unholy allegiance with a longtime enemy, a revivalist preacher he had twice run against for political officeâ€”and who had bitterly slandered Lincoln as an â€œinfidelâ€¦too lacking in faithâ€ to be elected.

Lincolnâ€™s Last Trial captures the presidential hopefulâ€™s dramatic courtroom confrontations in vivid detail as he fights for his clientâ€”but also for his own blossoming political future. It is a moment in history that shines a light on our legal system, as in this case Lincoln fought a legal battle that remains incredibly relevant today.
Country USA
Manufacturer Hanover Square Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2023-01-18
UnitCount 1
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Hanover Square Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2023-01-18
UnitCount	1
Format	Kindle eBook

Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency

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