Note 99 — Chapter VIII · THE WONDER-WORKING SAN JOSÉ
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The Judge was Hon. Kirby Benedict, in early manhood a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who was in 1858 appointed Chief Justice of New Mexico. A second judgment of his given in favor of Ácoma was a case of some celebrity. Several citizens of New Mexico sought to recover a sum of money on account of there having been delivered to the pueblo one hundred and sixty-six years previously the title deeds to its lands in New Mexico, for which these New Mexicans claimed the Indians of Ácoma had agreed to pay. The verdict of the Justice is a delicious piece of irony and satire, qualities for which he was renowned. Old Santa Fé, July, 1913, pp. 75-81.