Decision of Chief Justice Taney, in the case of Ex Parte John Merryman, Applying for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

First Philadelphia edition. 16pp. 8vo. In April 1861, with the Civil War erupting, northern troops were rushed to Washington, D.C. to protect the capital, passing through Baltimore by rail. Although Maryland voted against secession at the end of April, pro Southern sentiment abounded in the planter society and the state militia was used to try and prevent northern troops from passing through the state. The following month, planter and militia Lieutenant John Merryman was arrested for treason and for advocating "armed hostility against the Government" for his role in destroying railroad bridges in the state being used to transport Union troops. Merryman's lawyers appealed to Justice Roger B. Taney (the Supreme Court Justice who infamously decided the Dred Scott case by ruling that those of African ancestry could not claim citizenship in the United States), who immediately issued a writ of habeas corpus. Guaranteed by the Suspension Clause of the Constitution, habeas corpus protected citizens against unlawful arrests by allowing the court to bring prisoner's before the bench to determine whether their detention was indeed lawful. General George Cadwalader, the commander of the military district including Fort McHenry where Merryman was being held prisoner, refused to abide with Taney's decision, citing Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. On May 28, in the present decision, Taney stated from the bench in ex parte John Merryman that the President can neither suspend habeas corpus nor authorize a military officer to do it, and that military officers cannot arrest a person not subject to the rules and articles of war, except as ordered by the court. President Lincoln would refuse to comply with Taney's ruling, continuing the suspension and the military arrests without congressional approval. The passage of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act in March 1863 finally ended the controversy, at least temporarily, by authorizing presidential suspension of the writ during the Civil War. Taney's decision, widely seen as pro-Southern, although based in sound legal precedent, was first published separately in Baltimore in 1861, followed by a New Orleans printing and another in Jackson, Mississippi. This Philadelphia edition would appear the following year. Sabin 48029 Disbound, a bit brittle, chip at fore-edge.…