66 THE MORGAN HORSE 



It is always well in examining the testimony, especially of those 

 who are ignorant, to distinguish between what they have a right to 

 know of their own knowledge, and what comes to them from hear- 

 say, or the pretended knowledge of others. Frequently they them- 

 selves make no distinction. Here, this Mr. Stearns could not well be 

 mistaken about seeing the horse, or the attendant circumstances, 

 and so far his testimony is valuable. The hearsay evidence that he 

 got about his origin, we know to be nearly or quite valueless. Mr. 

 Linsley calls attention to the date that Mr. Stearns fixes of the Jus- 

 tin Morgan's first appearance in St. Johnsbury, June, 1804, which he 

 says is perhaps correct, but adds: "He says: 'Uncle John said 

 he was a Canadian horse that he had got from Justin Morgan, of 

 Randolph, who had lately brought him from Montreal' that is to say, 

 within a few weeks, that spring, or perhaps the previous winter. Now 

 Justin Morgan died March 22d, 1798, or six years previous to tnis 

 time, as we have shown". 



It may be further suggested that Mr. Stearns may have had 

 some foundation for his statement that Justin Morgan had lately 

 brought the horse from Montreal. He was mistaken as to the man 

 from whom his uncle got the horse a not unnatural mistake when 

 we consider the horse's well-known name, and the long lapse of time. 

 It was Robert Evans and not Justin Morgan. But substituting Evans 

 for Morgan, the statement may not be so far out of the way. John 

 Goss may have furnished Evans the money to go and get the horse, 

 or it may be true that he went bail for Evans it is evident that Goss' 

 ownership grew out of some transaction, involving money, between 

 him and Evans. Now where Evans found the horse we do not 

 know. His whereabouts are undetermined from February, 1797, 

 when he passed to John Hawkins at Montpelier, till he re-appears in 

 the hands of Robert Evans at Randolph, probably about 1801. But 

 there are traditions that the horse went to " the north part of the State", 

 and he may have gone into Canada. If Evans really did find him in 

 Canada it would furnish the foundation for Mr. Stearns' state- 

 ment. In the advertisement of Sherman Morgan, under the name 

 of Lord North, John Langdon, who shows himself very familiar 

 with the original Morgan, says: "The Lord North was sired 

 by the old Morgan horse, well known at Randolph, Danville, Mont- 

 pelier and through the center and north part of Vermont". So it would 

 seem that the Justin Morgan did at some time stand further north 

 than Danville, or Lyndon, where Sherman was bred , and where the 

 some advertisement says he was "formerly owned". This was prob- 



