The Putnam County Bar Association may not quite be the smallest in Illinois, but it probably is the smallest to conduct a very big Law Day program.

All 10 members of the bar were hosts on April 27 to the entire senior class (70 students) of Putnam County High School for a presentation conducted by President Roger C. Bolin of Hennepin.

Bolin introduced all county office holders and attorneys to the students, and led a tour of the courthouse and jail – well-timed on the eve of the senior prom.

The highlight of the Law Day event was a mock trial prepared and presented by the students. Rather than base the scenario on the usual prom-related fictional case, the bar association decided to recognize the 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision with a trial set in 1857.

The actual case was brought by Dred Scott in Missouri, but the mock trial was “premised on what hypothetically might have happened if it had been heard in Putnam County,” said 10th Circuit Judge Scott A. Shore, who chaired the Law Day program.

Dred Scott claimed he was a free person by reason of his travels with his master through the free territory of Wisconsin and free state of Illinois (ISBA Bar News, March 2007, page 4).

“Our fictional account supposes that Dred and his wife, Harriet, had escaped from John Emerson at the bend of the Illinois River at Moronts Station near Hennepin in Putnam County, while en route back to Missouri,” Shore said.

“We hypothesized that the Scotts were then hired by the railroad, which was in the process of expanding here at the time. Our mock trial is premised on John Emerson's widow suing the railroad for replevin of her slaves.”

In the Putnam County version, Abraham Lincoln was cast as the railroad's lawyer. Students wearing partial costumes filled the roles of all participants, attorneys, court personnel and jury.

“It may sound far-flung, but there was in fact such a case for replevin against a railroad, decided in Illinois,” Shore pointed out.

“We hoped to also get the point across to this year's student guests that even Abe Lincoln had found himself on the fence long before becoming president, balancing the ideal of abolition against the realities of having to attract more territories into statehood.”

Lincoln visited Putnam County in 1845, and had promised to explain the dilemma in writing to two farmers. The four handwritten pages of his subsequent letter represent a valuable benchmark in Lincoln's shifting stance on abolition.

“We can make this particularly relevant to students, as the letter was addressed to Williamson and Madison Durley, direct ancestors of our senior bar member, Walter Durley Boyle of Hennepin,” Shore said.

At age 93, Boyle still practices law, and he shared the historical incident with the students. He is a recipient of the ISBA General Practice Tradition of Excellence Award.

“The issue is still very real and relevant,” Shore continued, “as to whether a person with rights in one state might lose those rights, or his property, merely by crossing state lines.

“Whether the issue is the right to drive, the right to possess a radar detector, or the right to engage in a relationship permitted in one state but prohibited in another, the arguments remain unsettled 150 years after the Dred Scott decision,” which sided with the rights of Missourians to own slaves.

Other bar association members who helped students prepare for the mock trial are State's Attorney Norman K. Raffety, James A. Mack and James M. Helmig of Peru.