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To: Non-Sequitur; lentulusgracchus
First, the Taney warrant. There is no evidence supporting this contention except for 2 or 3 second person accounts.

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.

56 posted on 08/23/2004 8:48:36 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist ("Can Lincoln expect to subjugate a people thus resolved? No!" - Sam Houston, 3/1863)
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To: GOPcapitalist
Two corroborating second hand accounts by George Brown and Benjamin Curtis

The audacity of a former US Supreme Court justice, and a Maryland judge to tell the truth about the incident. </sarcasm>

About a year ago I saw a note about Justice Nelson also knowing about the incident, but I cannot find that note. *sigh*

57 posted on 08/23/2004 11:06:08 AM PDT by 4CJ (||) Men die by the calendar, but nations die by their character. - John Armor, 5 Jun 2004 (||)
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