Prigg V. Pennsylvania (1897)

As the nation descended further into a split entity, with the issue of slavery at the forefront of the debate. The North and South needed to find a way to deal with their differences before the Union fell in shambles. The Compromise of 1850 was passed after long extensive debate in congress, the compromise was intended to settle the debate over how slavery would be controlled throughout the expanding nation. The Fugitive Slave Act was included in the compromise to satisfy southern states, that wanted to preserve the institution of slavery. The act allowed for run away slaves to be hunted down and returned to their past owners, even after they made it to the free states in the North. The Southerners wished to preserve their right to property, which is among the “Unalienable Rights”. Some northern states refuse to recognize the law which infuriated the South because they saw this as an explicit violation of the slave holder’s rights, this intensified the South’s urge to become a separate State.

The United States became further united due to the continuous desire and procurement of new territories. In President James Polk’s 1845 Inaugural Address, he shared his opinion of the “danger to [the nation’s] safety and future peace” if Texas remained an independent

Although Lincoln was very tolerant of the institution of slavery in the Southern States even though he did not fully support it, he did not stand for a nation divided. As the southern states continued to remove themselves from the Union, Lincoln feared they were attempting to disrupt the order of things in the nation. The Union of States is considered to be perpetual. It is the fundamental law of all national governments; no government would allow provisions in its constitution that would allow for it to be terminated. He states that since the beginning of the Union there has been progression only towards strengthening the Union and the establishment of the Constitution was to “form a more perfect Union” (671). As States continue to secede the nation is becoming less perfect because the vital element of perpetuity is lost. States are legally bound to remain a part of the

Finally, in 1854, the first state high court declared the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to be unconstitutional. The state of Wisconsin ruled in favor of abolitionist Sherman Booth, who had helped slave Joshua Glover escape to safety. The United States Supreme Court eventually overturned this ruling, declaring the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to be constitutional and upholding the law. This political move frustrated the abolitionists, even those who considered themselves to be less extreme.

As with Calhoun, Lincoln’s notion of the Union and state sovereignty also ties into the principle of majority rule. However, Lincoln has a far different opinion than Calhoun, arguing that within the Union, the people, not the states, are the sovereign body, founded on the principle of majority rule. Furthermore, in Lincoln’s opinion, if you have a government based on majority rule, secession cannot possibly be considered legal or constitutional. While Calhoun fears majority rule will lead to tyranny and the infringement of the minority’s liberty, Lincoln believes it is the foundation of our government and protects majority will from suppression by a smaller party. Discussing this point further, Lincoln writes, “Unanimity is impossible; the rule of the minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the

III. Statement of Facts: Two Philadelphia officers observed Harry Mimms driving a car with an expired plate. They stopped the vehicle to issue a traffic ticket. One of the officers approached Mimms and asked him to step out of the car and produce his license and registration. Mimms alighted, whereupon the officer noticed a bulge under his jacket. Thinking the bulge might be a weapon, the officer frisked Mimms and discovered a loaded .38-caliber revolver. The other occupant was also carrying a gun. Mimms was indicted for carrying a concealed weapon and for unlawfully carrying a firearm without a license and convicted. Following a denial of a motion to suppress in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Mimms was convicted. The conviction was affirmed by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reversed. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed.

“The Union was formed for the benefit of all” (Edward Livingston). For South Carolina, the crisis involved both the divisions within the state during the crisis and the apparent isolation of the state as the crisis was resolved. By 1860, the state was more internally united than any other southern state, when South Carolina became the first state to secede. Andrew Jackson was a moderate when it came to these issues. “I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws-to preserve the Union by all constitutional means-to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm measures” (Edward Livingston). The nullification crisis made President Jackson almost a hero to many nationalists. However, Southerners were made more mindful of their minority position. The issues of nullification and secession stirred the first motions that would eventually lead to the American Civil

Just as Northerners saw flaws in the Constitution, Southerners viewed it not to be perfect as well. President James Buchanan, a northern man with southern sympathies clarified, “As sovereign states, they and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the slavery existing among them” (Document G). However, In Doc B, an anonymous writer defends the state’s rights that the constitution should protect slavery where it exists. The union will fall apart unless these rights are protected.

The coexistence of a slave owning south with an increasingly anti-slavery north made conflict likely. It was formidable to decide whether such states like the ones gained from the Mexican War should be slavery or anti-slavery, which either way would disrupt the balance between the slave and antislavery states. This divided the Union and Confederacy even further. Later on, President Lincoln sought not to propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had in his 1858 House Divided speech, expressed a desire to “arrest the further spread of it “(Doc. G). Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. All of the organized territories were likely to become free soil states which increased the southern movement toward secession. Both north and south assumed that if slavery could not expand it would become nonexistent. Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to anti-slavery forces, and northern feared that the slave power already controlled the government; these thoughts brought the sectional disagreements. The morality of slavery, the scope of democracy, and the economic merits of free labor versus slave plantations caused the Whig and know nothing parties to collapse and the free soil party to arrive, ruining the resolve of compromise.

The election of Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[74] Efforts at compromise, including the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise", failed. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined together to form the Confederacy.

p. 505). Although the nation before Abraham Lincoln’s presidential win was lawfully united, its mixture of slave states, non-slave states, and the new territories with undeclared laws on slavery was filled with tension.

The federal government denied states this right. However, proponents such as John C. Calhoun fought vehemently for nullification. When nullification would not work and states felt that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession.

In 1787, the creation of the U.S. Constitution would grant the national government dominance over the states. However, the southerners still felt that they should be able determine whether or not they accepted certain acts, and the idea of nullification was proposed. John C. Calhoun was first to present the states right to nullify, or ignore federal laws in which they disagreed, in his doctrine.[6] Things seemed to have remained calm until the commencement of Lincoln’s presidency when nullification was no longer allowed.

Lincoln held firm to the idea that the United States’ defining quality was its uniquely democratic government. The Constitution was cherished by Lincoln, and it was for the preservation of this document that Lincoln was willing to carry out whatever task necessary. However, Lincoln’s interpretation of the Constitution legitimized the ownership of slaves, and he was not willing to sidestep the constitution unless it became absolutely necessary to do so (as a war measure). Only after the United States had been immutably split and hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost did Lincoln finally take decisive action.

With the ruling of the Monroe v. Pape case in 1961, it held the local governments could now he held liable in federal courts. It would have to be proven that there was a violation of an individuals' constitutional rights and that the damage had been committed in violation to a policy or custom of that local government. The main causes for liability come from allegations of non or improper performance of their duties and responsibilities however, negligence does not always amount to criminal negligence. Probation officers (PO), working on behalf of the state, are only immune if it can be proven that their actions were in good faith.