Chief Justice Salmon Chase on the permanency of the Union, and Cynthia Nicoletti on Chase’s political ambitions

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Andrew Hamm Manager

Posted Fri, October 20th, 2017 3:56 pm

Chief Justice Salmon Chase on the permanency of the Union, and Cynthia Nicoletti on Chase’s political ambitions

In Texas v. White in 1869, Chief Justice Salmon Chase famously wrote for the Supreme Court that the “Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.” Chase’s opinion rejecting state secession may seem today like a foregone conclusion, an unsurprising legal corollary to the Union’s victory on the battlefield.

 For the court-watchers of the 1860s – #AppellateQuillPens – the ruling was much less obvious, especially given its author. Just one year previously, Chase had avoided reaching this holding in a different case – Jefferson Davis’ trial for treason. Chase maintained in both cases that he was following only the dictates of logic. In a lecture sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society, law professor Cynthia Nicoletti told a different story that suggests Chase had more personal motivations.

According to Nicoletti, Johnson and his attorney general, James Speed, worried about raising the issue of secession because they thought they might lose in open court – having already dismissed the possibility of charging Davis before a military tribunal for fear that Southerners would reject a guilty verdict as illegitimate.    http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/chief-justice-salmon-chase-permanency-union-cynthia-nicoletti-chases-political-ambitions/