John Marshall Harlan's Political Memoir

Near the end of his life, John Marshall Harlan wrote a number of biographical essays, presumably at the request of his children. Most of the essays relate to his experiences in the Civil War. The essay reprinted here instead recounts Harlan's political career before he joined the Supreme Court. Although he rarely won any elections and only held a couple of offices, Harlan's political odyssey is significant in that it shows how his social views were formed. Harlan's transformation from a staunch anti‐abolitionist to a civil‐rights advocate can be viewed as a series of reactions against various opponents as he struggled to find his political identity after the collapse of the Whig party in the 1850s.     

Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney

Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney may have met only twice—in 1849, when Lincoln made an oral argument before the Supreme Court, and in 1861, when Chief Justice Taney administered the presidential oath of office to Lincoln. The two men's roles in American history are inextricably bound nonetheless, as I will attempt to demonstrate in this essay.     

The Dissents of John Marshall Harlan I

I want to start by offering you two quotations. Both are from Harlan's famous dissent from Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, when the rest of the Justices held that it was constitutional to segregate people according to their race. The first quotation is famous; the second is not well-known—in fact, some of you may have never heard it before. Here is the first quotation:     

Duty and Justice at "Every Man's Door": The Grand Jury Charges of Chief Justice John Jay, 1790–1794

"It is the Fortune of few to chuse their Situation—it is the Duty & Interest of all to accommodate themselves to the one which Providence chuses for them." ¹ So said John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States. Duty was paramount in the lives of Jay and many of his contemporaries of the founding generation.