Secession on Trial
The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis

This book explores the treason trial of President Jefferson Davis, where the question of secession's constitutionality was debated.

Cynthia Nicoletti (Author)

9781108401531, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 October 2017

356 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Secession on Trial stands as a deeply informative, thoroughly researched, and groundbreaking work about the ideological and factual context of the Davis trial. Nicoletti set herself a very difficult project and succeeds in creating a narrative told through a range of voices that questions what has become the Davis trial's standard narrative of Radical Republican consensus. Readers with an interest in legal history, debates about the nature of treason, and memorialization of the US Civil War will greatly appreciate her efforts.' Claire Wolnisty, H-Nationalism

This book focuses on the post-Civil War treason prosecution of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, which was seen as a test case on the major question that animated the Civil War: the constitutionality of secession. The case never went to trial because it threatened to undercut the meaning and significance of Union victory. Cynthia Nicoletti describes the interactions of the lawyers who worked on both sides of the Davis case - who saw its potential to disrupt the verdict of the battlefield against secession. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Americans engaged in a wide-ranging debate over the legitimacy and effectiveness of war as a method of legal adjudication. Instead of risking the 'wrong' outcome in the highly volatile Davis case, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to pronounce secession unconstitutional in Texas v. White (1869).

1. The imprisoner's dilemma
2. Two lions of the New York Bar
3. O'Conor's bluff
4. The Civil War as a trial by battle
5. The return of the rule of law
6. Speed issues an opinion
7. Public opinion and its uses
8. Thaddeus Stevens, secession, and radical reconstruction
9. Underwood and Chase
10. Secession and belligerency in Shortridge v. Macon
11. Richard Henry Dana comes on board
12. The reach of the prize cases
13. Two embattled Presidents
14. O'Conor's triumph epilogue: Texas v. White and the 'settlement' of secession's constitutionality
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], American Civil War [HBWJ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]