Posted on 08/20/2004 5:43:21 AM PDT by TexConfederate1861
Where is the part where Lincoln ordered the judge arrested?
Matt Dillon?
I have a Ph. D. What's your point?
I have a Ph. D. What's your point?
That you're better than me, I guess. And I had better not dare question anything you say.
My point is that Noni is not as qualified ad DiLorenzo.
Damn straight!
You're still confusing several key details of the case. Merrick was not arrested into the custody of the military but rather placed under house arrest. Murphy's attorney Foley is the one who was arrested into the custody of the military (i.e. a "normal" arrest rather than a house arrest).
As for the orders, there were several. Porter is the one who ordered to his men that Merrick be placed under house arrest until the duration of the Murphy case (the idea being to prevent him from returning to his courtroom to hear the case). When the other judges found out about Merrick's situation they issued a contempt of court summons against Porter.
Porter responded to the contempt order by informing the court via surrogate that Lincoln authorized him to act as he did and ordered the district attorney to prevent the ruling of contempt from being served against Porter.
(pssst ... Ward Lamon didn't even write the books attributed to him)
That is only partially accurate. Lamon's name actually appears on two different biographies of Lincoln, one of them ghost written and the other his own.
The first biography was published in 1872 and did indeed rely heavily upon a ghost writer he hired, Chauncey Black. Lamon contracted the book out to Black, though he did provide virtually all of its source material in the form of personal papers and a loaned collection of letters and interviews accumulated by William Herndon for his own biography of Lincoln some years later. Black's first version came across as overly negative towards Lincoln and prompted David Davis to advise that Lamon make a revision. Lamon did just that, toning down the material substantially though still portraying a less than saintly Lincoln. Though some parts of the 1872 book are still questionable, Lamon spent a great deal of time in the mid 1870's writing and publishing his own defenses of the book when some of the unflattering anecdotes were challenged.
The second Lamon book is given substantially greater and in fact practically universal acclaim by historians. Lamon himself wrote it, largely at the urging of Lincoln's former Secretary of the Interior after the two conversed upon the fact that they were among the last living members of Lincoln's "inner circle." Unfortunately it was still incomplete at the time of Lamon's death so the timeline between each of the essays is very fragmentary. Lamon's daughter had the portions that were completed published around the turn of the century following her father's death. It is from this second Lamon book that historians get some of the most famous Lincoln anecdotes such as the warnings he received not to go to Ford's theater and the midnight pass through Baltimore before the inauguration.
"To dole out patronage, Pierce and his Cabinet {which included Sec. Treasury James Guthrie of KY; Sec. of War Jefferson Davis of MS; Sec. of Navy James Dobbin of NC; fellow doughface Sec. of State William Marcy of NY; and Attorney General Caleb Cushing of MA, who who show his stripes later when he bolted the Northern/Douglas wing of the Democrat Party to preside over the nomination of John Breckinridge} met daily, with two considerations dominating the agenda: distribution among the factions and geographical representation. The latter was necessary for congressional approval." (L. Gara, The Presidency of Franklin Pierce)
It is also said that Pierce "made no appointment that would offend southern sensibilities." Pierce appointed several rabidly pro-southern judges to high positions. Regarding one such appointment a newspaper opined, "If President Pierce wishes to create an anti-slavery sentiment that nothing short of the total abolition of slavery will quiet, he cannot accomplish in any other way as soon as by ... such tools of slave power."
One of the major problems which faced Lincoln early in the War was an entrenched, sometimes disloyal, pro-southern judiciary.
No, I'm confused on how this supports DiLusional's claim that it is evidence that Lincoln personally ordered Taney's arrest. For this to support that claim, then it stands to reason that Lincoln must have personally ordered Merrick's arrest, too. So, where is the evidence that Lincoln personally ordered Merrick's arrest? It seems that it wasn't included in any of your posts.
So which book does the Taney arrest story come from?
To Lincoln? Their oath is to uphold the Constitution, not a dictator.
Nah, simply authorizing it would suffice to demonstrate his willingness to use the arrest of judges to obstruct the judiciary from ruling against him.
So, where is the evidence that Lincoln personally ordered Merrick's arrest?
He personally authorized it as reported to the court by Porter's surrogate.
It doesn't come from a book. It comes from a document in Lamon's papers that very well may have been intended for the book that he died before completing.
New Hampshire. BTW, attacking Merrick's person does not alter either the case he heard or the wanton abuses committed against him. Besides, everything I've read about him suggests that he had a highly respected professional career - long standing judge, congressman after the war, law professor at Georgetown. IIRC you made several unsubstantiated allegations against Merrick on the other thread, claiming that he was a "confederate sympathizer" - a report that you seemingly based off a website that did not contain any evidence whatsoever to that end. Now it seems that the only thing you got against him is to malign President Pierce, which again fails to address either issue, be it Merrick or the abuses committed against him.
You also neglect to account for how your gratuitous "confederate sympathizer" charge pertains to this case. Murphy was a northerner and the writ was issued to him on the grounds that he was an underage minor being held in the military service of the northern army. The case had nothing to do with arrests of accused secessionists.
In other words, the facts still remain undisputed:
1. Lincoln ignored and refused a federal court's writ of habeas corpus for Murphy.
2. To further impede the court, Lincoln authorized the house arrest of Judge Merrick and prevented the circuit panel from serving Porter with contempt.
Both of these actions were felonious.
Your source makes it sound as if Breckinridge's candidacy was some fringe outsider challenge for the nomination. In reality, Breckinridge was the INCUMBENT vice president from a moderate border state (Kentucky) and thus his party's heir apparent for the nomination. If anything, Breckinridge was the status quo candidate in 1860.
capitan has been making unsubstantiated and wholly gratuitous allegations of confederate sympathy against Merrick for weeks. I caught him doing this on another thread. He googled Merrick's name in search of dirt and found nothing, so instead he repeated what he found under a mini-bio without providing a link and embellished it with the claim of confederate sympathies. I later found the site that he copied the mini-bio from because it had a unique typo in the spelling of Merrick's middle name, which capitan repeated. Sure enough, it said absolutely nothing even remotely hinting at any confederate sympathies. As usual, capitan simply pulled that one out of his backside.
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