by Brian McGinty
The untold story of how one sensational trial propelled a
self-taught lawyer and a future president into the national spotlight.
In the early hours of May 6, 1856, the steamboat Effie
Afton barreled into a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge—the first railroad
bridge ever to span the Mississippi River. Soon after, the newly constructed
vessel, crowded with passengers and livestock, erupted into flames and sank in
the river below, taking much of the bridge with it.
As lawyer and Lincoln scholar Brian McGinty dramatically
reveals in Lincoln's Greatest Case, no one was killed, but the question
of who was at fault cried out for an answer. Backed by powerful steamboat
interests in St. Louis, the owners of the Effie Afton quickly
pressed suit, hoping that a victory would not only prevent the construction of
any future bridges from crossing the Mississippi but also thwart the burgeoning
spread of railroads from Chicago. The fate of the long-dreamed-of
transcontinental railroad lurked ominously in the background, for if rails
could not cross the Mississippi by bridge, how could they span the continent
all the way to the Pacific?
The official title of the case was Hurd et al. v. The
Railroad Bridge Company, but it could have been St. Louis v. Chicago,
for the transportation future of the whole nation was at stake. Indeed, was it
to be dominated by steamboats or by railroads? Conducted at almost the same time
as the notorious Dred Scott case, this new trial riveted the nation’s
attention. Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln, already well known as one of the best
trial lawyers in Illinois, was summoned to Chicago to join a handful of crack
legal practitioners in the defense of the bridge. While there, he succesfully
helped unite the disparate regions of the country with a truly transcontinental
rail system and, in the process, added to the stellar reputation that vaulted
him into the White House less than four years later.
Re-creating the Effie Afton case from its unlikely
inception to its controversial finale, McGinty brilliantly animates this legal
cauldron of the late 1850s, which turned out to be the most consequential trial
in Lincoln's nearly quarter century as a lawyer. Along the way, the tall
prairie lawyer's consummate legal skills and instincts are also brought to
vivid life, as is the history of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi, the
progress of railroads west of the Appalachians, and the epochal clashes of
railroads and steamboats at the river’s edge.
Lincoln's Greatest Case is legal history on a grand
scale and an essential first act to a pivotal Lincoln drama we did not know was
there.
About the Author
Brian McGinty
is an attorney and writer who specializes in American history and law. His
previous books include Lincoln and the Court, The Body of John Merryman:
Abraham Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus, and John Brown’s Trial. He
lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
ISBN 978-0871407849, Liveright Publishing, © 2015, Hardcover,
272 pages, 18 Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $26.95. To
purchase a copy of this book click
HERE.
