As to Lamborn, Zoe was a nigger, and the spoil of any one who
wanted her. These were some of the things that Reverdy hinted at. If I
prosecuted Lamborn, the countercharge would be made that I had been
intimate with Zoe myself. If she had a child I would be proclaimed its
father, especially if I raised an issue, and tried to fix the paternity
upon Lamborn. If I went to see the state's attorney and asked him to
act, there was danger that he would not wish to do so, because the
present state's attorney was about to lose the office. He would not wish
to start a social hostility that would react upon himself. In fact,
Douglas was now trying to supplant him. I was known as a friend of
Douglas'. Perhaps I would be trying to involve the state's attorney in
an unpopular prosecution. If the prosecuting attorney refused to act
that refusal would be known, and credit might be given to any reports
that might arise that Zoe was mine before she was Lamborn's, if she ever
was his. And if I resented the prosecuting attorney's refusal to act,
then I might be accused of acting with Douglas in his ambition to get
the office. Above all, under the law of Illinois, Zoe could not testify
against Lamborn, a white man. Thus, in any prosecution that was to be
made, evidence independent of Zoe's word had to be procured.
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