ASTRONOMY IN HISTORY

Lincoln and the Almanac Trial

Donald W. Olson and Russell L. Doescher, Texas State University

Texas State University^|SAN MARCOS

News from University News Service Mark Hendricks

Astronomical Study Explains Mystery of Lincoln's Almanac Trial

SAN MARCOS — Two Texas State University astronomers have discovered new astronomical evidence which helps to solve a long-standing mystery dating from Abraham Lincoln's career as a lawyer.

The research cleanses what is perhaps the only smudge on Lincoln's otherwise impeccable reputation for honesty.

The Physics Department scientists, Donald Olson and Russell Doescher, published their findings in the August 1990 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine. The results concern an 1858 trial at which Lincoln defended murder suspect Duff Armstrong. "We were particularly interested because astronomical evidence played a crucial role in the Armstrong trial, which is often called the almanac trial," said Olson.

The main prosecution witness claimed to have seen Armstrong bludgeon a man to death at 11 p.m. on Aug. 29, 1857, in a fight following a religious camp meeting in Mason County, Illinois. The witness testified he saw everything by the light of a bright, nearly-full moon standing high in the sky.

After having the witness repeat several times his testimony about the position of the moon, Lincoln produced an almanac indicating the moon was setting and near the horizon at 11 p.m. on Aug. 29. The witness was discredited and Armstrong was acquitted.

Townspeople at the time, though, clearly remembered a bright, nearly-full moon high in the sky at the time of the camp meeting and since they believed the moon could not be high in the sky at 8 p.m. and going out of sight on the horizon at 11 p.m., people presumed Lincoln manufactured a phony almanac to confuse the witness and bolster his own case.

The circumstances of the almanac trial are included in most Lincoln biographies and comprise a portion of John Ford's classic 1939 film "Young Mr. Lincoln," starring Henry Fonda as the future president.

While most biographers dismiss the allegations against Lincoln based on his reputation for honesty, most will also concede that the prevailing opinion of the time was that there was something wrong with the almanac.

The Texas State astronomers wondered who was right — the townspeople who saw the bright moon over the camp meeting, or Lincoln, whose almanac placed the moon low and near setting. "But when we used computer simulation to reconstruct the sky of August 29, 1857, we discovered a remarkable coincidence," said Doescher. "A very unusual lunar phenomenon occurred on the night of the camp meeting. The moon on that night was near its most extreme southern declination, a position it reaches only every 18.6 years."

The effect is to cause the moon to move from its highest point in the sky to setting in an unusually short time.

The astronomers' calculations for August 29, 1857, show that just before 8 p.m., during the camp meeting, the moon was due south and at its highest point for that night. However, by 11 p.m., the moon was already dropping from view near the southwestern horizon. This time interval was remarkably short because of the moon's extreme position in the 18.6-year lunar cycle.

"We believe that this can resolve the apparent conflict between Lincoln's astronomical evidence and the recollections of the townspeople — both were correct," said Olson. "Our new astronomical evidence explains for the first time how the stories of the spurious almanac began and gives additional reason for believing that Lincoln was honest in his citations from the almanac."

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Lincoln and a Comet

Lincoln and Horace White, a reporter for the Chicago Press & Tribune, observed brilliant Donati’s Comet on the evening of September 14, 1858, the day before one of the debates with incumbent U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas, which White was covering for the newspaper.

According to White, “Mr. Lincoln greatly admired this strange visitor, and he and I sat for an hour or more in front of the hotel looking at it.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY: LINCOLN & ASTRONOMY

D. W. Olson and L. E. Jasinski, “Lincoln’s Celestial Connections,"

Sky & Telescope 117 (No. 3), 66 (March, 2009).

D. W. Olson and L. E. Jasinski, "Abraham Lincoln and the Leonids,"

Sky & Telescope 98 (No. 5), 34 (November, 1999).

D. W. Olson and R. L. Doescher, "Lincoln and the Almanac Trial,"

Sky & Telescope 80 (No. 2), 184 (August, 1990)

LINKS

Texas State University Honors Program
http://www.txstate.edu/honors/

Sky & Telescope

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/

Don Olson, Physics Department, Texas State University

http://uweb.txstate.edu/~do01/

Marilynn Olson, English Department, Texas State University

http://www.english.txstate.edu/people-contacts/faculty/olson.html

Christopher Olson, JD, Hawaii Lawyer, Oahu Lawyer, Oahu, Hawaii
http://hawaiiattorneyonline.com/