First, the Taney warrant. There is no evidence supporting this contention except for 2 or 3 second person accounts. There is no physical evidence, no documentation, no escaping the fact that Taney never spent a day in jail but remained on the bench until he died. The physical evidence supporting the claim is non-existent.
Aha, says Tommy. We have circumstantial evidence. We have Ward Lamon. We are to believe that Ward Lamon, by his account, was given the order to arrest Taney by Lincoln personally and just didn't do it. But I'm not aware of any other instance where Lincoln gave Lamon an order and Lamon just decided not to carry it out. Lamon was Lincoln's most loyal minion, and held no love for Taney so why on this occasion would Lamon ignore Lincoln's orders? Evidence like this would hardly stand up in court.
But, cries DiLusional, there is more. We are to believe that Taney told others that he was to be arrested. But we don't know what he based that on. The account comes not from Taney himself but from a second party some time after the threat of arrest had passed. And again Taney was never harmed, threatened, jailed, or in any way disturbed. He remained on the bench ruling on cases for another two years.
Wait, wait, yells Tommy, the icing on the cake is yet to come. Judge Merrick! Don't forget Judge Merrick! And here DiLusional goes off on a tangent. Nowhere in his account does Judge Merrick mention being jailed. Nowhere is an arrest warrant mentioned. Nowhere does DiLusional say that Judge Merrick remained on the bench until the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia was replaced in 1863 by the Supreme Court of D.C. And most of all nowhere does Tommy offer any support that this was done at the order of Abraham Lincoln. The title of this POS is "Lincoln’s 'Great Crime': The Arrest Warrant for the Chief Justice." If Lincolnd didn't personally order the arrest of Judge Merrick then how does his account support Tommy's insane claim that Linoln ordered the arrest of Chief Justice Taney? If Lincoln did issue the warrant then where is it?
So suck up Tommy's crap, I could not give a damn less. I honestly can't tell if the "Great Crime" was supposed to be the alleged warrant on Kerry or the suspension of habeas corpus, and I don't think Tommy is sure himself. Disagree with me all you want, and have Nolu Chan post 60,000 words in reply along the same lines as the dump he's already posted. Nothing he presented supports the claim that Lincoln issued a warrant for Taney. It's back to Lamon's account and Taney's ramblings, and the fact that nothing ever happened to Taney at all.
Of course your "love" for the Great Tyrant could have something to do with YOUR ramblings.
The object of the charge, I understand, was to procure prossecutions, and punishment of some men for arresting, or doing violence to some secessionists---that is, the Judge was trying to help a little, by giving the protection of law to those who were endevoring to overthrow the Supreme law---trying if he could find a safe place for certain men to stand on the constitution, whilst they should stab it in another place.
But possibly I am mistaken.
The Secretary of War and I have agreed that if the Judge will take the oath of allegiance, usually taken in such cases, he may be discharged. Please ascertain, and inform me whether he will do it. Yours very truly A. LINCOLN
Of course Lincoln should have said alleged secessionists, and then the only thing they were alleged to have done was heckling.
By Lincoln's own statement, he professed approval of doing violence to those who may allegedly heckle, with no due process of law.
By Lincoln's own statement, he approved of government agents entering a court and pistol whipping the judge sitting on the bench and then subjecting him to unlawful imprisonment, should the judge attempt to provide the protection of the law to those who have been subjected to unlawful government violence for alleged heckling.
Agents of the Executive branch subverted the Jucicial branch, and Lincoln personally approved.
I included all of the primary sources just for you, Nonsense.
Wrong. The most detailed and specific account is first hand by Ward Hill Lamon. Lamon is treated as a credible source by Lincoln scholars and in fact is our only first hand source for many of the most famous anecdotes about Lincoln's life. So why shouldn't we also believe his anecdote about the arrest plot against Taney?
There is no physical evidence, no documentation, no escaping the fact that Taney never spent a day in jail but remained on the bench until he died.
Red Herring. The issue has never been whether Taney spent time in jail but rather as to the existence of a plot to arrest him that got dropped before it was executed. As clearly noted by Lamon, the plot was abandoned. Brown corroborates this as his conversation with Taney indicates knowledge that the arrest had been plotted but decided against.
The physical evidence supporting the claim is non-existent.
Physical evidence discovered to date:
1. First hand account by Ward Hill Lamon
2. Two corroborating second hand accounts by George Brown and Benjamin Curtis
3. Corroborating evidence that Lincoln employed similar practices against another federal judge in Washington during a habeas corpus case a few months later.
Aha, says Tommy. We have circumstantial evidence. We have Ward Lamon.
How is Ward Lamon circumstantial? He was an eyewitness and, as US Marshall in DC, was the person (henchman?) Lincoln gave the warrant to.
We are to believe that Ward Lamon, by his account, was given the order to arrest Taney by Lincoln personally and just didn't do it.
Or, perhaps, cooler heads prevailed and Lamon was given verbal instructions to hold off.
Wait, wait, yells Tommy, the icing on the cake is yet to come. Judge Merrick! Don't forget Judge Merrick! And here DiLusional goes off on a tangent. Nowhere in his account does Judge Merrick mention being jailed.
Yeah, cause they placed him under house arrest.
Nowhere is an arrest warrant mentioned.
Evidently Lincoln didn't think he needed one (he purported himself to have suspended habeas corpus and was arresting people without cause or charges all over the country, remember?). If you read the case though you will find several documents provided to the court by the provost marshall's office indicating that his activities in the case had been directly approved by Lincoln.
Nowhere does DiLusional say that Judge Merrick remained on the bench until the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia was replaced in 1863 by the Supreme Court of D.C.
Why would he need to include immaterial details? The point is that Merrick was house arrested for the duration of the Murphy case in order to prevent him from attending its hearing before the full circuit panel review.
And most of all nowhere does Tommy offer any support that this was done at the order of Abraham Lincoln.
Read the case (DiLorenzo gave you the full citation for that purpose). The provost marshall's documents repeatedly and explicitly state that they were acting directly on orders from Saint Abe.
(pssst ... Ward Lamon didn't even write the books attributed to him)
Nice response. Tip o'the hat.