Note iii-43 — Chapter III · PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

It may be of interest to note that these same revolutionary properties, and the same stage-setting of frozen ground flecked with the blood of patriots’ unshod feet, had served Patrick Henry, many years before, in the defense of John Venable, Commissary of the Continental Army, sued by John Hook, a Tory, for the value of some steers seized to feed the hungry troops. But Henry’s eloquence had not prevailed as fully as Lincoln’s did; for the jury found a verdict, though in a nominal sum, against the great Virginian’s client.