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President Lincoln had considerable reason to be concern with what the Supreme Court might do after the War. The Supreme Court was led by Chief Justice Roper P. Taney, appointed by Andrew Jackson. The Taney Court had delivered arguably the worst decession in American history--the Dread Scott decession (1857). The decession settled the the question the civil status of blacks. The Court held that blacks were not and could not be citizens. Teney was convinced that the decession would defuse the sectional tensions building at the time. He advised newly elected President Buccanan of this even before the decession was issued. It is critical to understand the Taney Court when studying the modern historical debate over the Emancipation Proclamation. The Court was composed of Democrats and could easily have struck down a more expansive Emancipation Proclamation. This is why Lincoln wrote such a legalistic document and why he alsp persued the 13th Amendment. There is no doubt that without the 13th Amendment that the Emancipation Proclamation would have been brought before the Court and almost certainly questioned. Slave owners would have used the courts to recover their "lost property". The Court had begun to strike down various actions taken by the Lincoln Administration. Court rulings on military tribunals (in Ex-parte Mulligan) and prize cases give an indication of court hostility to the Lincoln Administration. Chief Justice Taney died in December 1864, but the make-up of the court was still little changed.
President Lincoln had considerable reason to be concern with what the Supreme Court might do after the War. The Supreme Court was led by Chief Justice Roper P. Taney. Taney was from a Maryland slave-owning family and appointed by President Andrew Jackson. Taney began his political career as a Federalist, but became a committed Democrat. President Andrew Jackson appointed him as Attorney General (1831-33). As Attorney General, Taney oversaw Jackson's struggle against the Second National Bank. When Jackson's Treasury Secretary refused to withdraw Federal fuds from the Bank. Jackson appointed Taney to be Treasury Secrtrary (1833). The Senate rejected Jackson's nomination of Taney as Treasury Secretary by a 28-18 vote (1834). This forced Taney who was serving as acting secretry to resign. Taney in fact was the first presidential nomimee to a cabinent post ever rejected by the Senate. Jackson next dominated Taney to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. This nomination was also rejected. Senator Daniel Webster led the opposition to his nomination,
Elections changed the politicl complexion of the Senate. After the death of Chief Justice John Marshall, Jackson nominated Taney for chief justice. There was a bruising Senate debate with Clasy and Erbster bitter opposing confiormastion. The Senate this time confirmed the nomination (1836).
One of Taney's first impact on the Supreme Court was the clothing standards. Taney did not wear the knee breeches that Marshall had continued to wear, but had passed out of style. Taney wore long trousers which became standard attire among justices.
Opponents were especially concerned over Taney's attitude toward private proerty. He outraged conservatives with the Court's decession in the Charles River case. Taney argued that the state's police powers gave it the authority to enact reasonable regulatory measures even if they appeared to enfringe provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Taney like Marshall proved to be like Marshall, one of the longest serving chif justices. His legacy, however, is very different. The result of his destruction of the Second National Bank was the Panic of 1837, one of the most severe economic depressions in American history. Even so, Taney became a very respected figure in Washington, by moth Democrats and Whigs. He was honest and and excellent lawyer. He is know for the clarity of his decesions. Taney's most notable decession was the Dread Scott decession which played a role in the outbreak of the Civil War. Senator Charles Sumner wrote that Taney's would be for everen tarred by the Dread Scott decesion.
The Taney Court had delivered arguably the worst decession in American history--the Dread Scott decession (1857). The Court until the Dred Scott decesision ruled very narowly on cases concerned with slavery. Basically the Court always decided narrowly that slavery was as matter for state courts. Taney went far beyound the erarlier narrow decesions. The Court decession and Taney's text settled the the question the civil status of blacks. The Court held that blacks were not and could not be citizens. Taney was convinced that the decession would defuse the sectional tensions building at the time and settle the slavery issue once and for all--thus preserving the Union. He advised newly elected President Buccanan of this even before the decession was issued. The decesion outraged Abraham Lincoln and was one of the reasons he ran for the Senate against Senator Stephen A, Douglas. Lincoln challenged Senator Douglas to a series of debates across Illinois. Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates claimed that Taney and Douglas were in a conspiracy to promolte slavery. [Simon]
After Lincoln's election, Taney and Lincoln differed on three major issues, slavery, secession, and presidential war powers. [Simon] Taney had freed his slaves. He thought it was an evil system, but he thought it was a matter reserved by the Constitution to the States. Taney also thought that the Union was a compact between soverign states and they had a right to seceed. They also differed over presidential war powers, especially the writ of habeus corpus. Taney was outraged when Federal troops arrested a pro-Southern sympahizer, John Merryman, in Maryland. Tanney tried to restrict Lincoln's war powers using the Court, but Lincoln essentially ignored him. Lincoln was very aware, however, that after the War his actions would be questioned by the Court and that he could not involke war powers once the war ended.
Concerned that the Dread Scott decession had not ended the debate over slavery, it appears that Taney was prepared to go even further with other cases before the Court. Some believe that Taney was guiding the Court to rule that property rights protected by the Constitution gave slave holders the right to bring their slaves into Free States as well as territories.The case Lemmon v. New York was making its way through the court system and many historians believe that the Taney Court would have heard and ruled on it. Ironically the outbreak of the Civil War, it part brought on by the Court's Dread Scott decession, prevented the Court from hearing the case.
It is critical to understand the Taney Court when studying the modern historical debate over the Emancipation Proclamation. The Court was composed of Democrats and could easily have struck down a more expansive Emancipation Proclamation. This is why Lincoln wrote such a legalistic document and why he alsp persued the 13th Amendment. There was no doubt in his mind that slave holders would try to recover their property through the courts and in all probability the Taney Court would rule in their favor.
There is no doubt that without the 13th Amendment that the Emancipation Proclamation would have been brought before the Court and almost certainly questioned. Slave owners would have used the courts to recover their "lost property".
The Taney Court had begun to strike down various actions taken by the Lincoln Administration. Court rulings on military tribunals and prize cases give an indication of court hostility to the Lincoln Administration.
The most significant confrontation came in Masryland--one of the key border states and where there was considerable support for both the Condederacy and slavery. President Lincoln declared martial law in parts of the State and suspended the right to habeas corpus. The Taney Court ruled in Ex parte Merryman (1861) that only Congress had the leal authority to take this action. Some historians believed that Lincoln contemplated arresting Chief Justice Taney, but this is debated among scholars. Lincoln's response was to simply ignore the Court's order and continue making arrests without the writ. Merryman himself was eventually. Chief Justice Taney died in 1864, but the make-up of the court was still little changed for the remainder of the Lincoln Administration..
Simon, James. Lincoln and Chief Justice Tanney (2006).
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