Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #661851 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780674032422
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
McGinty (The Oatman Massacre: A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival) offers a lucid review of the major Civil War Supreme Court cases. The Civil War, as McGinty explains, was a struggle over constitutional interpretation: did Lincoln have the constitutional authority to do whatever he thought necessary to compel seceding states back to the Union? He thought so, but Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney sometimes stood in his way. The first major clash was over Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, which Taney declared unconstitutional in the 1861 Merryman case. In 1862 came another battle, the Prize cases, regarding the constitutionality of Lincoln's declaring a blockade of Confederate ports. The Court also heard cases about whether a Union citizen could criticize a president during wartime and whether the Treasury Department could regulate trade between a Union state and the Confederacy. McGinty says that the Court could have struck down the president's major war measures but chose not to do so. The author covers some of the same territory as James Simon's 2006 Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, and at times one wishes for more rigorous, subtle analysis of the meaning of the Court's role in the Civil War. Still, McGinty's engaging account, which treats a topic with obvious parallels to the present, will delight history buffs. 16 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Charles Lane

The Supreme Court helped launch Abraham Lincoln's national political career, albeit unintentionally. The 1857 Dred Scott decision, which declared that no African American could be a citizen and that even free states must respect the property rights of slaveowners, gave the Illinoisan an issue he would ride to the White House. His opposition to Dred Scott animated his debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 and pervaded the New York speech in February 1860 that propelled Lincoln to the Republican nomination. Yet when he took the oath of office in March 1861, five members of the Dred Scott majority, including the main opinion's author, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, were still on the court. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court was widely, and correctly, considered a potential source of opposition to the new president.

Lincoln's struggle to withstand judicial review is the subject of Brian McGinty's fascinating book. Lincoln thought that the Southern rebellion posed an existential threat to the United States, and that he, as commander-in-chief, was authorized to take extraordinary measures to save the Union. These included the suspension of habeas corpus without prior congressional approval, a blockade of Southern states by U.S. warships and the emancipation of slaves without compensation.

History has generally been kind to Lincoln's approach, but it was controversial in its time. Taney challenged the suspension of habeas corpus in the 1861 case of ex parte Merryman, asserting that it was "too plain and too well settled to be open to dispute" that only Congress could suspend the right to challenge an unlawful detention in court. But McGinty, a lawyer as well as a historian, shows that the law was cloudier than Taney acknowledged -- and that the Southern-sympathizing chief justice completely failed to take account of the secessionist disorder raging around Washington.

Fortunately for Lincoln, Congress subsequently ratified his decision on habeas. One member of the Dred Scott majority died, and another fled south. By 1863, three new Lincoln appointees were on the court, and they helped reject (by a 5-4 vote) a series of challenges to his blockade of the Confederacy. McGinty is particularly strong in narrating these so-called Prize Cases, which could have undercut the Union war effort.

Some of McGinty's subject matter in Lincoln and the Court has been covered in other recent books. But, as he notes in an afterword, the issue of presidential power in wartime is as fresh as today's headlines.

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
The most complete account to date of President Lincoln and the Supreme Court in wartime. In a beautifully written narrative, McGinty makes complicated legal issues accessible, and his descriptions of the Dickensian characters involved in this contentious and critical period are fascinating. He makes clear that of all U.S. presidents, Lincoln was the lawyer in the White House.
--Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and founding chair of The Lincoln Forum (20080217)

McGinty's outstanding work on Lincoln's relationship with the Supreme Court has long been needed, and is especially trenchant as we deal anew with the limits of governmental power versus individual rights. McGinty brings a valuable background in law to this thoughtful and perceptive account of what Lincoln and the war did to and with the relationship between law and freedom.
--William C. Davis, author of Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (20090401)

McGinty offers a lucid review of the major Civil War Supreme Court cases. The Civil War, as McGinty explains, was a struggle over constitutional interpretation: did Lincoln have the constitutional authority to do whatever he thought necessary to compel seceding states back to the Union? He thought so, but Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney sometimes stood in his way. The first major clash was over Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, which Taney declared unconstitutional in the 1861 Merryman case. In 1862 came another battle, the Prize cases, regarding the constitutionality of Lincoln's declaring a blockade of Confederate ports. The Court also heard cases about whether a Union citizen could criticize a president during wartime and whether the Treasury Department could regulate trade between a Union state and the Confederacy. McGinty says that the Court "could have struck down the president's major war measures" but "chose not to do so"... McGinty's engaging account, which treats a topic with obvious parallels to the present, will delight history buffs. (Publishers Weekly )

It's not easy to find Lincoln territory where good, open grazing land remains, but McGinty has found it. Combining expertise as an attorney and historian with a style that welcomes readers, he gives us Lincoln the lawyer-president who worked with a Supreme Court to which he ultimately appointed five members. The Civil War brought forth numerous legal conflicts, and McGinty shows that the personalities and issues involved were as vital and fascinating as those we are more familiar with on the military side.
--Margaret Heilbrun (Library Journal )

[A] fascinating book...The issue of presidential power in wartime is as fresh as today's headlines.
--Charles Lane (Washington Post )

Lincoln and the Court addresses a subject that has been neglected, if not ignored, by historians: the story of our sixteenth president and the Supreme Court during the Civil War...Brian McGinty has written an important book for military historians...This is a well-written, tightly organized, and thoughtful book that will appeal to anyone interested in a new perspective on Lincoln's actions as Commander-in-Chief, and the legality of measures he took to achieve a Union victory.
--Fred L. Borch (Journal of Military History )

Customer Reviews

An Effective Analysis of Lincoln and the Supreme Court
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.

Difficult but rewarding
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.

Full Court 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.)