The body of John Merryman [electronic resource] : Abraham Lincoln and the suspension of habeas corpus / Brian McGinty.
McGinty, Brian.
2011
KF223.M48 M38 2011eb
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Title The body of John Merryman [electronic resource] : Abraham Lincoln and the suspension of habeas corpus / Brian McGinty.
Author McGinty, Brian.
ISBN 9780674063259 electronic book
0674061551
9780674061552
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (253 p., [10] p. of plates) : ill.
Call Number KF223.M48 M38 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 347.73/5
Summary "In April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus along the military line between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. This allowed army officers to arrest and indefinitely detain persons who were interfering with military operations in the area. When John Merryman, a wealthy Marylander suspected of burning bridges to prevent the passage of U.S. troops to Washington, was detained in Fort McHenry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, declared the suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional and demanded Merryman's immediate release. Lincoln defied Taney's order, offering his own forceful counter-argument for the constitutionality of his actions. Thus the stage was set for one of the most dramatic personal and legal confrontations the country has ever witnessed. The Body of John Merryman is the first book-length examination of this much-misunderstood chapter in American history. Brian McGinty captures the tension and uncertainty that surrounded the early months of the Civil War, explaining how Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was first and foremost a military action that only subsequently became a crucial constitutional battle. McGinty's narrative brings to life the personalities that drove this uneasy standoff and expands our understanding of the war as a legal--and not just a military, political, and social--conflict. The Body of John Merryman is an extraordinarily readable book that illuminates the contours of one of the most significant cases in American legal history--a case that continues to resonate in our own time"--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-242) and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Body of John Merryman.
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The challenge
Conflicted ground
The squire of Hayfields
The writ and the suspension
All the laws but one
Weighing in
The courts
A gentleman still
The great tribunal.

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