Download Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers AudioBook Free
The clashes between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney over slavery, secession, and the president's constitutional war powers visited the heart of Lincoln's presidency. James Simon, author of the acclaimed What Sort of Nation -- a merchant account of the battle between President Thomas Jefferson and Chief Justice John Marshall to define the new nation -- brings to vivid life the passionate struggle through the worst crisis in the country's history, the Civil War. The problems that underlaid that crisis -- race, states' rights, and the president's wartime authority -- resonate today in the country's political debate.
Lincoln and Taney's bitter disagreements commenced with Taney's Dred Scott opinion in 1857, when the principle justice declared that the Constitution did not grant the black man any rights that the white man was bound to honor. Inside the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln attacked the opinion as a warped judicial interpretation of the Framers' intent and accused Taney to be a member of your pro-slavery national conspiracy.
In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln insisted that the South had no legal right to secede. Taney, who administered the oath of office to Lincoln, believed that the South's secession was legal and in the best interests of both parts of the united states.
Once the Civil War began, Lincoln broadly interpreted his constitutional powers as commander in chief to prosecute the war, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, censoring the mails, and authorizing military courts to try civilians for treason. Taney opposed every presidential wartime initiative and openly challenged Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. He accused the president of assuming dictatorial powers in violation of the Constitution. Lincoln ignored Taney's protest, convinced that his actions were both constitutional and essential to preserve the Union.
Almost 150 years after Lincoln's and Taney's deaths, their words and actions reverberate in constitutional debate and political battle. Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney tells their dramatic story in fascinating detail.
