The Rescue of Joshua Glover by Baker H. Robert;

Author:Baker, H. Robert;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

SIX

The Constitution before the People

The election of a Supreme Court Judge is more important to the protection of life, liberty and property, than any other election by the people. We can live under the administration of a despotic President, protected by a firm, independent, liberty loving Supreme Court. But when this last defence of the people’s liberties, and the rights of a sovereign State are surrendered to the Slave Power, the sun of Freedom has set, and the darkness of Despotism overshadows the last bulwark of Liberty.

—Rufus King, Sherman Booth, and Horace Rublee, Milwaukee Sentinel, March 9, 1859

ON FEBRUARY 5, 1855, U.S. district court judge Andrew Miller found his courtroom crowded for the first time since he had sentenced Sherman Booth to one month in prison and a $1,000 fine several weeks earlier. Members of the press and public had come to hear his reaction to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s release of Booth on a writ of habeas corpus. He obliged them with a prepared statement. While he conceded that “the sovereignty and rights of the several states are the life of the Republic, and the people have in their state constitutions and laws provided checks against incroachments [sic] on the part of the general government,” he vigorously denied the right of a state court to overturn federal court proceedings. He quoted Wisconsin’s habeas corpus statute, which specified that if a state court found that a petitioner was held by federal process, then it was that court’s duty to remand him. He also stated the doctrine of comity of courts: when jurisdiction was concurrent, the court to which jurisdiction first attached retained it. Although the harassment of U.S. officers continued, Miller blamed the “local excitement” on extremists and “magistrates and officers of very limited practical knowledge of the peculiar jurisdiction of the Federal Courts.” Fortunately, he added, “such difficulties have generally been settled through the virtue, patriotism and intelligence of the people.”1

Miller both staked out the independence of the federal judiciary and acknowledged that its authority depended upon the people’s goodwill and support. This meant victories at the polls against abolitionists who had encouraged resistance. The precarious position that Democrats occupied in Wisconsin made such victories unlikely. Political realignment had begun before the Glover rescue, but the attempted enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act quickened its pace. Antislavery meetings held across the state, such as the April 13 Anti-Slave-Catchers’ Mass Convention in Milwaukee, led to a statewide convention in Madison during July 1854, in time to form a party and nominate candidates for the November elections. The Madison conference drew together the remnants of Wisconsin’s Free Soil and Whig parties, and some Democrats crossed lines to join the new party. The conference announced the mission of the new party, resolving to accept the issue of freedom or slavery “forced upon us by the slave power” and pledging cooperation and association under the new name of “Republicans.” The platform adopted by the assembly was of Free Soil and Liberty Party parentage,

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