The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address

[Rob Wick]

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