In the spring of 1861, Union military authorities arrested
Maryland farmer John Merryman on charges of treason against the
United States for burning railroad bridges around Baltimore in an
effort to prevent northern soldiers from reaching the capital. From
his prison cell at Fort McHenry, Merryman petitioned Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney for release through a writ of
habeas corpus. Taney issued the writ, but President Abraham Lincoln
ignored it. In mid-July Merryman was released, only to be indicted
for treason in a Baltimore federal court. His case, however, never
went to trial and federal prosecutors finally dismissed it in
1867.
In Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War, Jonathan White
reveals how the arrest and prosecution of this little-known
Baltimore farmer had a lasting impact on the Lincoln administration
and Congress as they struggled to develop policies to deal with
both northern traitors and southern rebels. His work exposes
several perennially controversial legal and constitutional issues
in American history, including the nature and extent of
presidential war powers, the development of national policies for
dealing with disloyalty and treason, and the protection of civil
liberties in wartime.
General
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