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To: capitan_refugio
Judge Merrick was appointed to the bench by President Franklin Pierce. Pierce was a doughface from Vermont (Northerner with Southern sympathies).

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.

78 posted on 08/24/2004 8:43:45 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist ("Can Lincoln expect to subjugate a people thus resolved? No!" - Sam Houston, 3/1863)
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To: GOPcapitalist
New Hampshire! Quite right. For some reason, when it comes to presidential politics, I associate drunkards and crazy men with Vermont.

With regard to Merrick, there is no way he would have been appointed to his seat on the DC bench over the objections of the Southerners. I based none of my previous comments from the deleted thread off of "a website," but rather, on my own understanding of the politics of the 1850's and the well-documented fact that the federal judiciary in slave States (and D.C.) were decidedly pro-southern. This was due, in part, to the tradition of appointing or nominating "locals" to fill those positions.

One rationale for the suspension (of the privilege of the writ) of habeas corpus was to prevent a disloyal judiciary from attempting to free fellow sympathizers, as Taney did with his friend and neighbor, John Merryman.

The "facts" you quote are disputed and your conclusion is baseless. After the writ was suspended, there could be no lawfully issued writ.

88 posted on 08/24/2004 12:21:34 PM PDT by capitan_refugio
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