Trial of A. Lincoln, The

The scene is a basement of some large building, temporary quarters for an investigation of unknown character. Policemen, both in and out of uniform, commingle with black people and white people. The mayor, the municipal judge, the jury, and the counsellors-at-law are here, as well as a black man with seemingly low intelligence and a street argot. The black man has been accused of having put down Abraham Lincoln and inciting strife between blacks and whites in the police department. As the trial proceeds, rancor rises, and we witness in this police department the Civil War all over again in microcosm.