supreme court |

EX PARTE MERRYMAN

In which we discuss Chief Justice Roger Taney’s dramatic challenge to Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of “the great writ of liberty” (habeas corpus).

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Body of John Merryman: Abraham Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus by Brian McGinty.

“An original, comprehensive, and well-written narrative about the first constitutional crisis pitting Abraham Lincoln against Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Anyone interested in American history, the Constitution, and the Civil War will be anxious to read this excellent book.” ~ Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and founding chair of The Lincoln Forum

Listen to Episode 63: ExParteMerryman

In which we talk about the results of the Dred Scott case in 1857 & the fiasco over the Lecompton Constitution in 1858, and we show how the snowballing negative consequences of those events finally caused the Democratic Party to split, once & for all, along sectional lines. A unified Republican Party will take advantage of that split & win the presidency in 1860.

Our book recommendation for this episode is The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics by Don E. Fehrenbacher.

On March 6, 1857 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Supreme Court’s decision against Dred Scott. Scott, a slave, maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the fate of an elderly black man and his family, however; Dred Scott vs Sanford was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. the decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories, thereby intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery.

Listen to Episode 15: DredScott

Tag Archives: supreme court

Civil War Podcast, Episode 63

Civil War Podcast, Episode 15