Note iii-8 — Chapter III · PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Herndon, i, 326-28; Atlantic Monthly, April, 1867, p. 412.

Whatever the practice at the Springfield bar may have been, Lincoln’s objection to the making of a fictitious plea was of course not finical. No less an authority than Chief Justice Holt had said: “The attorney, if he puts in a false plea to delay justice, breaks his oath, and may be fined for putting a deceit on the Court.” (Pierce vs. Blake, Salkeld’s Reports, ii, 515. See, also, Johnson vs. Alston, Campbell’s Reports, i, 176.)