Posted on 08/20/2004 5:43:21 AM PDT by TexConfederate1861
Imagine that America had a Chief Justice of the United States who actually believed in enforcing the Constitution and, accordingly, issued an opinion that the war in Iraq was unconstitutional because Congress did not fulfill its constitutional duty in declaring war. Imagine also that the neocon media, think tanks, magazines, radio talk shows, and television talking heads then waged a vicious, months-long smear campaign against the chief justice, insinuating that he was guilty of treason and should face the punishment for it. Imagine that he is so demonized that President Bush is emboldened to issue an arrest warrant for the chief justice, effectively destroying the constitutional separation of powers and declaring himself dictator.
An event such as this happened in the first months of the Lincoln administration when Abraham Lincoln issued an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Roger B. Taney after the 84-year-old judge issued an opinion that only Congress, not the president, can suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Lincoln had declared the writ null and void and ordered the military to begin imprisoning thousands of political dissenters. Taney’s opinion, issued as part of his duties as a circuit court judge in Maryland, had to do with the case of Ex Parte Merryman (May 1861). The essence of his opinion was not that habeas corpus could not be suspended, only that the Constitution requires Congress to do it, not the president. In other words, if it was truly in "the public interest" to suspend the writ, the representatives of the people should have no problem doing so and, in fact, it is their constitutional prerogative.
As Charles Adams wrote in his LRC article, "Lincoln’s Presidential Warrant to Arrest Chief Justice Roger B. Taney," there were, at the time of his writing, three corroborating sources for the story that Lincoln actually issued an arrest warrant for the chief justice. It was never served for lack of a federal marshal who would perform the duty of dragging the elderly chief justice out of his chambers and throwing him into the dungeon-like military prison at Fort McHenry. (I present even further evidence below).
All of this infuriates the Lincoln Cult, for such behavior is unquestionably an atrocious act of tyranny and despotism. But it is true. It happened. And it was only one of many similar constitutional atrocities committed by the Lincoln administration in the name of "saving the Constitution."
The first source of the story is a history of the U.S. Marshal’s Service written by Frederick S. Calhoun, chief historian for the Service, entitled The Lawmen: United States Marshals and their Deputies, 1789–1989. Calhoun recounts the words of Lincoln’s former law partner Ward Hill Laman, who also worked in the Lincoln administration.
Upon hearing of Laman’s history of Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus and the mass arrest of Northern political opponents, Lincoln cultists immediately sought to discredit Laman by calling him a drunk. (Ulysses S. Grant was also an infamous drunk, but no such discrediting is ever perpetrated on him by the Lincoln "scholars".)
But Adams comes up with two more very reliable accounts of the same story. One is an 1887 book by George W. Brown, the mayor of Baltimore, entitled Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861: A Study of War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1887). In it is the transcript of a conversation Mayor Brown had with Taney in which Taney talks of his knowledge that Lincoln had issued an arrest warrant for him.
Yet another source is A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, a former U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Judge Curtis represented President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate; wrote the dissenting opinion in the Dred Scott case; and resigned from the court over a dispute with Judge Taney over that case. Nevertheless, in his memoirs he praises the propriety of Justice Taney in upholding the Constitution by opposing Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus. He refers to Lincoln’s arrest warrant as a "great crime."
I recently discovered yet additional corroboration of Lincoln’s "great crime." Mr. Phil Magness sent me information suggesting that the intimidation of federal judges was a common practice in the early days of the Lincoln administration (and the later days as well). In October of 1861 Lincoln ordered the District of Columbia Provost Marshal to place armed sentries around the home of a Washington, D.C. Circuit Court judge and place him under house arrest. The reason was that the judge had issued a writ of habeas corpus to a young man being detained by the Provost Marshal, allowing the man to have due process. By placing the judge under house arrest Lincoln prevented the judge from attending the hearing of the case. The documentation of this is found in Murphy v. Porter (1861) and in United States ex re John Murphy v. Andrew Porter, Provost Marshal District of Columbia (2 Hay. & Haz. 395; 1861).
The second ruling contained a letter from Judge W.M. Merrick, the judge of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, explaining how, after issuing the writ of habeas corpus to the young man, he was placed under house arrest. Here is the final paragraph of the letter:
After dinner I visited my brother Judges in Georgetown, and returning home between half past seven and eight o’clock found an armed sentinel stationed at my door by order of the Provost-Marshal. I learned that this guard had been placed at my door as early as five o’clock. Armed sentries from that time continuously until now have been stationed in front of my house. Thus it appears that a military officer against whom a writ in the appointed form of law has first threatened with and afterwards arrested and imprisoned the attorney who rightfully served the writ upon him. He continued, and still continues, in contempt and disregard of the mandate of the law, and has ignominiously placed an armed guard to insult and intimidate by its presence the Judge who ordered the writ to issue, and still keeps up this armed array at his door, in defiance and contempt of the justice of the land. Under the circumstances I respectfully request the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court to cause this memorandum to be read in open Court, to show the reasons for my absence from my place upon the bench, and that he will cause this paper to be entered at length on the minutes of the Court . . . W.M. Merrick Assistant Judge of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
As Adams writes, the Lincoln Cult is terrified that this truth will become public knowledge, for it if does, it means that Lincoln "destroyed the separation of powers; destroyed the place of the Supreme Court in the Constitutional scheme of government. It would have made the executive power supreme, over all others, and put the president, the military, and the executive branch of government, in total control of American society. The Constitution would have been at an end."
Exactly right.
August 19, 2004
Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] is the author of The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, (Three Rivers Press/Random House). His latest book is How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold Story of Our Country’s History, from the Pilgrims to the Present (Crown Forum/Random House, August 2004).
Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com
On the contrary, importing slaves was legal in the confederacy and not in the United States.
Ma'am, Abraham Lincoln replied to the legislature that he was unanswerable to the legislature for political arrests made in May 1861.
WASHINGTON, July 27, 1861.To the House of Representatives:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th instant, asking the grounds, reason, and evidence upon which the police commissioners of Baltimore were arrested and are now detained as prisoners at Fort McHenry, I have to state that it is judged to be incompatible with the public interest at this time to furnish the information called for by the resolution.
Ma'am, your version of the Constitution must be different than the one ratified by the states. The US had legalized the importation of slaves at IT's founding.
However importing slaves was illegal in the U.S. at the outbreak of the rebellion but legal in the confederacy.
Ma'am, the importation of slaves from Africa was prohibited. Additionally, the Confederate Congress was granted the power to 'prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy'.
Bookmark BUMP!
Young lady, imports of slaves from the slave holding territories of the United States were specifically protected by the confederate constitution, and I'm not aware of any legislature passed by the confederate congress that outlawed it.
With all due respect I'm a man. The Confederate Constitution did allow for additional states to be admitted, but the Confederate Congress - via delegated contitutional power - could prohibit (see previous post) any new slave states from entering. Maybe if the Confederacy hadn't been so busy defending themselves from a madman such legislation could have been introduced.
Sorry, correct gender identification didn't seem important to you so I assumed you wouldn't mind.
The Confederate Constitution did allow for additional states to be admitted, but the Confederate Congress - via delegated contitutional power - could prohibit (see previous post) any new slave states from entering.
How could they do that without violating Article I, Section 9, Clause 4, or Article IV, Section 3, Clause 3?
Maybe if the Confederacy hadn't been so busy defending themselves from a madman such legislation could have been introduced.
Or maybe not. They had time in February 1861 to pass legislation that provided a back-door channel to import slaves from Africa.
Because Article I § 3 clause 2 prohibits it. Clause 4 prohibits the federal government from interfering with the existing states rights. Article IV § 3 clause 3 prevents a Dred Scott, or Lincoln's dream of a lily white west.
If you are indeed a man then say so.
"Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or other wise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. "
Huh?
Clause 4 prohibits the federal government from interfering with the existing states rights.
Which means that the confederate congress could not admit a state where slavery is outlawed.
Article IV § 3 clause 3 prevents a Dred Scott, or Lincoln's dream of a lily white west.
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 would effectively prevent a territory from being admitted as a non-slave state, wouldn't it?
You've called me 'boy' in the past. Why the sudden gender confusion?
Someone told me you were a lady.
LOL! My bad. Article I § 9 clause 2.
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 would effectively prevent a territory from being admitted as a non-slave state, wouldn't it?
(3) No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States; and who shall not, then elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he shall be chosen.My turn - huh? ;o)
I figured that they let Winans go after his first arrest in May because having to talk with Gen. Butler was punishment enough for whatever he had done.
I found a list of arrestees in the Philadelphia Public Ledger of September 14, 1861:
Important Arrests at Baltimore
BALTIMORE Sept 13 -- The Provost Marshal arrested, this morning, before daylight, the following distinguished citizens. Mayor Brown, Charles H. Pitts, Lawrence Sangston, S. T. Wallis, T. P. Scott, and Ross Winans members of the Legislature. F. R. Howard, the editor of the Baltimore Exchange was also arrested. The whole party were conveyed to the Hospital of sick patriotism, located at Fort McHenry.
The following additional arrests have been made: Messrs. Deanson, Quinland, and Dr. Lynch, members of the Legislature from Baltimore county, Henry M Warfield, Dr J Hanson Thomas and John O Brune, city members. Also Thos W Hall, editor of the "South".
...All the arrests have been made pursuant to orders from the War Department. Of course there has been no official announcement of the arrests, but it is believed that all the names given above are correct.
It is also reported that Henry May, the member of Congress; Henry M Morfit and W. D. Harrison, members of the Legislature from the city, have also been arrested. These with the names before given, complete the ten city delegates. The rumor is also current that Benjamin C. Howard, the Peace candidate for Governor, has also been taken into custody. There is considerable excitement of a subdued character about the streets.
BALTIMORE, Sept 13 -- Evening -- H C Howard, the Peace Gubernatorial candidate, was not arrested, as was reported this morning.
Mr. Pierce, one of the City Delegation, also mentioned among the arrests, is out of the city, and therefore the announcement of his arrest is premature.
...The arrest of Mayor Brown is supposed to have been on account of the expressions made by him in his letter to Gen. Dix, in regard to the payment of the old police, in which he says: -- "I recognize in the action of the Government of the United States nothing but the assertion of superior force."
Mayor Brown and many of the others stayed in prison for some 14 months or more without trial.
free dixie,sw
I'm sure. Couldn't have been one of the southron contingent. They've been calling me 'boy' for some time now.
ROTF! Another section of the OR had Winans being old and infirm.
All the arrests have been made pursuant to orders from the War Department.
Political prisioners - no civil proceedings, no constitutional safeguards etc. Just arrested on the whim of a dictator.
Mayor Brown and many of the others stayed in prison for some 14 months or more without trial.
All hail Lincoln the benevolent </sarcasm>
Correction - that should be 4CJ's point about the corwin amendment
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