Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney

Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers

By: James F. Simon

Narrated by: Richard Allen

The clashes between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney over slavery, secession, and Lincoln's constitutional war powers went to the heart of Lincoln's presidency.

Lincoln and Taney's bitter disagreements began with Taney's Dred Scott opinion in 1857, when the chief justice declared that the Constitution did not grant the black man any rights that the white man was bound to honor. Lincoln attacked the opinion as a warped judicial interpretation of the Framers' intent and accused Taney of being a member of a pro-slavery national conspiracy.

In his first inaugural address, 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 sections of the country.

Once the war began, Lincoln broadly interpreted his constitutional powers as commander-in-chief to prosecute the war, suspending habeas corpus, censoring the press, and allowing military courts to try civilians for treason. Taney vociferously disagreed, accusing Lincoln of assuming dictatorial powers in violation of the Constitution. Lincoln ignored Taney's protests and exercised his presidential authority fearlessly, determined that he would preserve the Union.

James F. Simon skillfully brings to life this compelling story of the momentous tug-of-war between the president and the chief justice during the worst crisis in the nation's history.

©2006 James F. Simon (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Surprisingly taut and gripping....a dramatic, charged narrative." (Publishers Weekly)

A nice way to learn about American History

Reading along with the book I found a few cases of words or numbers that were wrong in the audio version example 130,000 said as one hundred thirty. The book teaches about an important part of American history in a great way.

Good history

This is a well written interesting book. Like other good history the more you read the more you want to learn. The only problem is that the reader did not research name pronunciation so it is a little irritating to listen to at times.

Poor Chief Justice Taney

How could a jurist be so wrong about the course of history. Chief Justice Taney's use of his office to attempt to derail the inevitable march of history toward the abolition of slavery is truly remarkable. As a consequence, he will forever be regarded, and properly so, as the worst Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The book provides a scholarly historical insight into the Court's role before and during the Civil War and is well worth reading/listening. One negative is the narrator. One would hope that both the narrator and editior would familiarize themselves with the proper pronunciation of the names of key characters in the narrative. He consistently mispronounced General McClellan's name calling him McCleeeeeland. He also mispronounced General Buell's name referring to him as General Bwell. I recommend this book to all student's of Civil War history.

Thought-provoking history

This is an interesting study of Lincoln and the centrality of his abolitionist poitical philosophy, juxtaposed against the Dred Scott decison authored by Chief Justice Taney. The narration was mediocre, but the content is thought-provoking.

Not exactly what I expected

This book is more parallel biographies of Lincoln and Taney. I enjoyed it but I expected more interesting insights into the interactions and conflicts between the two.

Mr. Allen's performance was at once superb and annoying. He doesn't seem to be familiar with the subject matter and constantly mispronounces names. Most annoying was his inconsistent reading of General McClellan, which occasionally he said correctly but mostly varied between Mc-Klee-lan and Mc-Klee-in. It's Mc-Klel-lan.