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RE: The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address
I understand that, but it never reached the Supreme Court (Fort Sumter made it moot). Had Sumter not taken place, Virginia, who was the real plaintiff, might have gotten it there, but Lincoln showed in the Merryman case that he was willing to ignore Taney, and the assumption that the court would have decided Lemmon the same way as Dred Scott, while certainly plausible (and maybe even likely), is not a foregone conclusion.
As I said before, the best thing for the South to have done would have been to remain in the union. Once they seceded, had Lemmon been overturned, they were no longer covered by it.
Of course, one could also argue that had Lemmon been decided like Dred Scott, the South might not have seceded, although the uproar in the North would have been overwhelming.
Best
Rob
Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.--Ida M. Tarbell
I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.
--Carl Sandburg
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The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address
