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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. 18 illustrations



About the Author

Brian McGinty

Brian McGinty is the author of twelve books and almost 200 articles dealing with American history, the American West, and American legal history. One of his specialties has been books about Abraham Lincoln. Born and raised in California, he earned degrees in American history and law from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Best Writing Prize from the National Historical Society, the Editor's Award for Historical Scholarship from the Sonoma County (California) Historical Society, a nomination for the One Book Arizona prize for 2008, and Honorable Mention in the 2010 Scribes Book Award of the American Society of Legal Writers.McGinty believes that neither history nor biography need be dull or plodding--that they can tell true stories accurately and in a style that ordinary readers find absorbing, even compelling. His most recent books include "Archy Lee's Struggle for Freedom: The True Story of California Gold, the Nation's Tragic March Toward Civil War, and a Young Black Man's Fight for Liberty" (Lyons Press/Rowman and Littlefield 2020) , "The Rest I Will Kill: William Tillman and the Unforgettable Story of How a Free Black Man Refused to Become a Slave" (Liveright/Norton 2016) , and "Lincoln's Greatest Case: The River, The Bridge, and the Making of America" (Liveright/Norton 2015) . His books have received enthusiastic reviews in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Review, and the Library Journal. His "Lincoln's Greatest Case" was described as "masterful" by both the Christian Science Monitor and Publishers Weekly and as a "lively account" of a central episode "in America's economic and political development" by the Wall Street Journal. Others of McGinty's books have received similar praise.McGinty's books are available at Amazon Books, from the book publishers, and from other sellers. See brianmcgintyauthor.com.



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