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Justice Curtis in the Civil War Era: At the Crossroads of American
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Justice Curtis in the Civil War Era: At the Crossroads of American Constitutionalism Hardcover - 2005

by Stuart Streichler


From the publisher

During a career as both a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, Benjamin R. Curtis addressed practically every major constitutional question of the mid-nineteenth century, making judgments that still resonate in American law. Aside from a family memoir written by his brother over one hundred years ago, however, no book-length treatment of Curtis exists. Now Stuart Streichler has filled this gap in judicial biography, using Curtis's life and work as a window on the most serious constitutional crisis in American history, the Civil War.

Curtis was the lead attorney for President Andrew Johnson in the Senate's impeachment trial, where he delivered the pivotal argument, and his was an influential voice in the pervasive constitutional struggle between states and the federal government. He is best remembered, however, for dissenting in the Dred Scott case, in which he disputed Chief Justice Taney's proslavery ruling that no black person could ever become a citizen of the United States. In the wake of the decision, Curtis resigned from the court, the only justice in the Supreme Court's history to do so on grounds of principle. Yet he also clashed with Boston's abolitionists over enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, and he opposed the Emancipation Proclamation.

In a period when the Constitution was radically transformed from a charter that protected slavery to one that granted all persons equal rights of citizenship, Justice Curtis maintained his faith in the Constitution as an adaptable instrument of self-government and tried to mark out a path for gradual change. Streichler assesses Curtis's common-law methods in the context of his divisive times and shows how the judge's views continue to shed light on issues that have become once again relevant, such as the presidential impeachment process and, after 9/11, the use of military tribunals to try civilians.

Details

  • Title Justice Curtis in the Civil War Era: At the Crossroads of American Constitutionalism
  • Author Stuart Streichler
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition 1st
  • Pages 304
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA
  • Date 2005-07-19
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780813923420 / 0813923425
  • Weight 1.35 lbs (0.61 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.5 x 6.44 x 1.02 in (24.13 x 16.36 x 2.59 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 19th Century
    • Chronological Period: 1851-1899
    • Topical: Civil War
  • Library of Congress subjects United States - History - Civil War,, Slavery - Law and legislation - United
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2004026763
  • Dewey Decimal Code 342.730

About the author

Stuart Streichler is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Law, Societies and Justice Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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