Please note: this event will be held at the Officer's Club at Fort McNair
January 18, 2011
Civil War historian and author, George Deutsch co-founded several historical organizations related to the Civil War and the War of 1812 in his hometown of Erie, Pa. He has also published multiple articles on the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and Commodore Oliver H. Perry’s Flagship Niagarathat played a major role in the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie. Deutsch designed the wayside marker about Strong Vincent and Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top, worked to erect Vincent’s statue in Erie, and led the effort to restore Erie County’s Civil War monument. He also helped to lead the conservation of the 83rd and 145th Pennsylvania’s battle flags now preserved in the Erie Library. Deutsch annually teaches Civil War history courses at the Chautauqua Institute in New York and has led more than 2 dozen battlefield tours for roundtable and university groups. He has been honored twice by the Pa. Historical and Museum Commission and received the Local History Award in 2003 from the Erie County Historical Society. Educated at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Deutsch also has a degree in history from Mercyhurst College. He is writing, with a partner, a new book on the 83rd Pennsylvania, focusing on the untold history of its last year in the war. He now lives in Catonsville, Md., with his wife, Mary Fran.
Topic: Abraham Lincoln and Roger B. Taney.
Deutsch will explore the legendary constitutional rivalry between President Abraham Lincoln and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. The rivalry began with the Dred Scott decision of 1857 and lasted until Taney’s death in 1864. Soon after Lincoln was sworn in as president, he faced an unprecedented crisis that threatened the nation's survival. When riots broke out in Baltimore and pro-Confederate groups cut telegraph wires and burned railroad bridges in Maryland, isolating Washington, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and followed by declaring martial law. Maryland civilian John Merryman was arrested by the military and held at Ft McHenry on suspicion of pro-Confederate activities. Taney challenged Lincoln's authority and issued a writ for Merryman that Lincoln chose to ignore. Other challenges to presidential war powers followed, culminating in the Prize Cases in 1863 involving Lincoln’s naval blockade in lieu of declaring war on the Confederacy. In that case, the Court ruled Lincoln’s action was constitutional but Taney wrote a vigorous dissent Taney was preparing briefs opposing both the Emancipation Proclamation and Conscription laws at the time of his death in October 1864.
