Beardstown, Illinois
Beardstown Courthouse
To see the courtroom where Abraham Lincoln defended
24-year-old William ("Duff") Armstrong, take the stairs to the
second floor. This is the only Illinois courtroom still in use where
Lincoln once practiced law.
The acquittal represented a personal and professional triumph for
Lincoln, who once rocked the defendant's cradle in New Salem.
The trial resulted from a nighttime brawl, and Lincoln produced an
1857 almanac -- the year of the incident -- to argue that the state's
witness could not have seen Armstrong kill the victim. There was little
light at the time, supposedly making it was too dark to identify
the assailant.