Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman

Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War

by Jonathan W. White

In the spring of 1861, Union military authorities arrested Maryland farmer John Merryman on charges of treason against the United States for burning railroad bridges around Baltimore in an effort to prevent northern soldiers from reaching the capital. From his prison cell at Fort McHenry, Merryman petitioned Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney for release through a writ of habeas corpus. Taney issued the writ, but President Abraham Lincoln ignored it. In mid-July Merryman was released, only to be indicted for treason in a Baltimore federal court. His case, however, never went to trial and federal prosecutors finally dismissed it in 1867.

In Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War, Jonathan White reveals how the arrest and prosecution of this little-known Baltimore farmer had a lasting impact on the Lincoln administration and Congress as they struggled to develop policies to deal with both northern traitors and southern rebels. His work exposes several perennially controversial legal and constitutional issues in American history, including the nature and extent of presidential war powers, the development of national policies for dealing with disloyalty and treason, and the protection of civil liberties in wartime.

Genres: History, Civil War, Law, War, American History

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2011

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting analysis of Lincoln vs. Chief Justice Taney (of Dred Scott infamy) and "the irony of (a country) fighting a war with its highest judicial officer bound in sympathy to the enemy." Just as ironic: Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus first in Maryland, the state which would spawn the plot for his own assassination and the attempted up-ending of the federal government. "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" vs. "This plea of necessity is the tyrant's plea for the prostration of civil liberty."

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, well-researched, and insightful. Also, concise. Worth a read even by those with no interest in the topic.