He listened to the testimony which witness after witness gave against his client, until his honest heart could stand it no longer; then, turning to his associate, he said: 'Swett, the man is guilty; you defend him; I can't.' Swett did defend him, and the man was acquitted.

When proffered his share of the large fee, Lincoln most emphatically declined it, on the ground that 'all of it belonged to Mr.Swett, whose ardor and eloquence saved a guilty man from justice.'" At a term of court in Logan County, a man named Hoblit had brought suit against a man named Farmer.

The suit had been appealed from a justice of the peace, and Lincoln knew nothing of it until he was retained by Hoblit to try the case in the Circuit Court.

G.A.Gridley, then of Bloomington, appeared for the defendant.

Judge Treat, afterwards on the United States bench, was the presiding judge at the trial.