Lincoln and the Court

Author - Brian McGinty ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Harvard University Press was reviewed on 29-Oct-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book Lincoln and the Court by Harvard University Press. I found Brian McGinty´s book on Lincoln and the Supreme Court a well written, comprehensive review of events and legal thinking on several levels. I learned a lot about the history of race relations in the U.S. from the earliest days of the Revolution through the 1870s, and why the Dred Scott decision was such an important event. I learned a lot about how the Supreme Court developed as an institution, the many personalities that made up the Court over this period, and how the growth of what was a young nation was reflected in the kinds of issues the Court considered. There is a lot of interesting insight about American politics through the middle of the 19th Century, and the personal relationships that influenced the advent of the Civil War, its execution, and its aftermath.

There is a good review of various areas of the law that were important at the time, some of which, such as Admiralty, of less general interest today, but others, such as Civil Liberties and habeas corpus, very much current.

McGinty provides good support for his professed esteem for Lincoln. There is much in this book about the personal and political relationships Lincoln had, and how Lincoln showed wisdom in managing the many forces seeking to influence the course of his presidency and the war.

There is a lot of information packed into the 315 pages of text. McGinty expresses himself well and clearly. Sometimes he uses 10 words when 7 or 8 would suffice, and sometimes he summarizes things he had just explained a few pages earlier, but the reader won´t lose track of who the characters are.

As a general reader, I found this an interesting history of the Supreme Court and the Civil War, and I thought it a useful addition to my knowledge of Lincoln´s life and philosophy.¤

2) Hardcover Book Lincoln and the Court by Harvard University Press. I found this to be an outstanding work in legal and constitutional history, bringing a fresh perspective to this topic that already has been well covered by others. See, e.g., James F. Simon, "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney." I think there are several reasons for the outstanding success of the book. First, the author takes his time and thoroughly discusses his topics--no quick summary of a case and then moving on here. Second, the author is extremely through in covering his topic--not just Lincoln and Taney, although that is an important theme obviously, but also he discusses topics such as Lincoln´s appointments to the Court and how the Court continued on dealing with these issues after Lincoln´s death. Finally, the author writes so effectively that even familiar material becomes interesting and stimulating.

All of the major cases are examined (habeas corpus, trial by military tribunals, Legal Tender, McCardle limitations on jurisdiction, and Texas v. White holding that the Union was never dissolved). Several chapters stand out, including that on Dred Scott (one of the best treatments I have seen) and the Prize Cases, which I used to think were quite boring. In addition, each Justice is profiled in depth, and a Gallery section contains excellent full-page photographs of each. Lincoln´s challenge in making Court appointments is well covered, presenting the President with the opportunity to secure solid votes to uphold his conduct of the war, but also the need not to antagonize the border states he sought to keep in the Union. The author´s attention to the post-Lincoln Court allows him to offer a fine assessment of Taney´s successor, Salmon P. Chase, who managed in the Legal Tender Cases to vote exactly opposite the position he had taken as Secretary of the Treasury.

The book is supported by 29 pages of notes, an excellent bibliography and index, as well as being a beautifully-printed volume to boot. Sometimes taking a new look at an old topic can result in important insights--such is the case with this book.¤

3) Hardcover Book Lincoln and the Court by Harvard University Press. A nice overview of the Supreme Court, encompassing the years just prior to Lincoln´s election, his term in office, and through the cases decided after his assassination but on matters that arose out of the conduct of the Civil War. The era´s critical legal disputes, from the infamous Dred Scott decision to the Test Oath cases, are reviewed. Of special interest to today´s reader is the discussion of the validity of sentences imposed on civilians by military tribunals.

This book is a good reminder of the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the rule of law, during our country´s Civil War. It also provides useful short character sketches of the various justices who served at that time and the role politics played in the selection of these same men, including Roger Taney and Salmon P. Chase. (More attention, rightfully so, is paid these two flawed but historically important chief justices.)

Brian McGinty provides a good legal analysis in prose that while not soaring is more than adequate to the task. One significant overstatement, I think, is made on page 245, when the author writes, "Although his own views on racial equality had evolved over the years, he [Lincoln] never denigrated blacks." While Abraham Lincoln was ultimately a great man on racial issues, he did say certain negative things about blacks during his life, such as in his famed debates with Stephen Douglas.

(As an aside, the use of the word "denigrated" is interesting in that it is derived from the word "nigare" or "black". It means to "blacken" or disparage.)¤

4) Hardcover Book Lincoln and the Court by Harvard University Press. I am not much for political history or biographies. Given a choice between reading Sears´ Gettysburg and Goodwin´s Team of Rivals, my choice is reading Gettysburg. That fact needs to be explained as I found this a difficult book to read but a very rewarding learning experience. My difficulty has nothing to do with the author´s skill as a writer but my preference as a reader. This is a book about judges, most of them old, and their ideas on how the law should be applied. President´s have problems with the court when the court´s idea conflicts with the Presidents. Lincoln was no exception but he faced a greater danger to the nation and the court´s actions could have had a much greater impact than they normally do.

McGinty starts with a series of portraits of the judges and how they had achieved their position. He manages to make them both human and inform the reader of their outlook in an interesting an informative manner. He covers personal quirks, deeply held beliefs, family and background showing us these men as both human and political beings. This provides a very firm foundation for a somewhat technical discussion of the cases and issues that follow.

The chapter on the Dred Scott case is one of the best in the book. Having covered Lincoln´s opposition to the Court´s decision in a prior chapter, the author walks us through the issues and the Court´s decision. He insures that we have the opportunity to gain a solid understanding of their reasoning based on their personalities and the law.

The next major case is Merryman and once more, the author takes the time to cover the issues, the history and the decision. Again, this is a very good chapter and fully explains the issues and what happened after the decision was made.

I was very impressed with the introduction and the author´s ideas of the Court´s view on secession. While never tested, it has given me a new series of ideas to think and talk about.

This is not an exciting book to read, unless you enjoy reading about legal precedent. However, it is well written and thought provoking. As my title says; this is not an easy read but it is a rewarding one that will give you an additional perspective on the Civil War.
¤

5) Hardcover Book Lincoln and the Court by Harvard University Press.

In a meticulously researched and engagingly written narrative, Brian McGinty rescues the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Supreme Court from long and undeserved neglect, recounting the compelling history of the Civil War president´s relations with the nation´s highest tribunal and the role it played in resolving the agonizing issues raised by the conflict.

Lincoln was, more than any other president in the nation´s history, a "lawyerly" president, the veteran of thousands of courtroom battles, where victories were won, not by raw strength or superior numbers, but by appeals to reason, citations of precedent, and invocations of justice. He brought his nearly twenty-five years of experience as a practicing lawyer to bear on his presidential duties to nominate Supreme Court justices, preside over a major reorganization of the federal court system, and respond to Supreme Court decisions--some of which gravely threatened the Union cause.

The Civil War was, on one level, a struggle between competing visions of constitutional law, represented on the one side by Lincoln´s insistence that the United States was a permanent Union of one people united by a "supreme law," and on the other by Jefferson Davis´s argument that the United States was a compact of sovereign states whose legal ties could be dissolved at any time and for any reason, subject only to the judgment of the dissolving states that the cause for dissolution was sufficient. Alternately opposed and supported by the justices of the Supreme Court, Lincoln steered the war-torn nation on a sometimes uncertain, but ultimately triumphant, path to victory, saving the Union, freeing the slaves, and preserving the Constitution for future generations.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 26-Nov-2008, 06740265519780674026551, 640-4X0-510-440-060-311-8

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