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The Body of John Merryman : Abraham Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus / Brian McGinty.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2011Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) : 10 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674061552
  • 9780674063259
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 347.73 5 22
LOC classification:
  • KF223.M48 M38 2011eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. THE CHALLENGE -- 2. CONFLICTED GROUND -- 3. THE SQUIRE OF HAYFIELDS -- 4. THE WRIT AND THE SUSPENSION -- 5. ALL THE LAWS BUT ONE -- 6. WEIGHING IN -- 7. THE COURTS -- 8. A GENTLEMAN STILL -- 9. THE GREAT TRIBUNAL -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674063259

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. THE CHALLENGE -- 2. CONFLICTED GROUND -- 3. THE SQUIRE OF HAYFIELDS -- 4. THE WRIT AND THE SUSPENSION -- 5. ALL THE LAWS BUT ONE -- 6. WEIGHING IN -- 7. THE COURTS -- 8. A GENTLEMAN STILL -- 9. THE GREAT TRIBUNAL -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

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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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)