163 years ago o,n May 27, 1862, the Talbot County courthouse was surrounded by Union troops to support federal Provost Marshals in the arrest of Judge Richard Bennett Carmichael. Four Provost Marshals barged into the Judge’s courtroom and bloodily bludgeoned him with the butt of a pistol in front of his jury and civilian spectators. Prosecuting attorney J.C.W. Powell rushed to the judge’s aid, and the crier of the court ran to the window to call for the Sheriff, but both were physically subdued. All three were sent to Fort McHenry for imprisonment.
The next day, the federal War Department issued a press release stating that the Judge had been imprisoned for treason. The press release was published in every major Northern newspaper and in Europe as soon as the news crossed the Atlantic. Judge Carmichael and attorney Powell were imprisoned for over 9 months under the harshest conditions without trial or charges ever placed against them.
These men were imprisoned and denied their basic constitutional rights to have legal counsel challenge the validity of their imprisonment, to be presented with charges, to have the government’s charges reviewed by a civilian court, to confront their accusers or to provide a defense in a civilian court of law. All these constitutional rights were denied because the President had suspended the sacred right of habeas corpus, an act that the Constitution had granted solely to Congress and not the Executive.
The Judge’s imprisonment for treason, as professed by the federal government, became established history for over 160 years touted by follow-on historians who simply relied upon the statements issued by the government. This was indicative of how history recorded the imprisonment of so many other Maryland political leaders, newspaper editors and other citizens imprisoned under the suspension of habeas which denied their right to present a defense or to even publicly proclaim their side of the story. The free press was grossly impacted by the suspension of habeas with numerous newspapers who presented dissenting views shut down or had their editors imprisoned and where the threat of such retaliation caused many others to remain compliant and not question the Executive.
With today’s technology to digitally search thousands of official records along with historical newspapers across the globe, the actual history of Judge Carmichael’s arrest can now be told – and it had nothing to do with secession or traitorous activity.
Judge Carmichael got the attention of Secretary William Seward in June of 1861 by sending a petition along with 48 others, to the Maryland Legislature detailing how Union soldiers had entered Queene Anne’s County and had placed themselves as a military police superior to civilian authority and were conducting unlawful searches, arrests and imprisonments and had unilaterally suspended habeas corpus to those they detained. This document recorded in the Maryland Archives is hugely important in understanding President Lincoln’s early suspension of habeas enacted just weeks prior. The President’s first suspension was touted as a military necessity to protect a narrow supply corridor between Philadelphia and Washington. With Carmichael’s communication to the Legislature, we find it was also suspended in places in Maryland far removed from this supply route and for totally different reasons as well.
Secretary Seward in learning of the Judge’s communication, issued a directive to General John Adams Dix to have the Judge imprisoned in Fort Lafayette for “treason” and to have the arrest conducted in the Judge’s courtroom to maximize the public impact. General Dix, however, did not act upon this directive at this time but continued to monitor the Judge. As a circuit court Judge, Carmichael was also a Judge in Queen Anne’s County and shortly before the state elections in November 1861 the clerk of Queen Anne’s Court, Madison Brown, was arrested and temporarily imprisoned by Union troops. Brown was running on the “Peace Party” ticket as a candidate for the Maryland Appellate Court during the upcoming state election and was just one of many Maryland political candidates that had been harassed and even imprisoned by the occupying Union troops prior to the election. Judge Carmichael had the offending military officers charged by the grand jury for the unlawful imprisonment of Brown and others, but the Union military simply relocated the charged officers outside of the Judge’s jurisdiction to prevent their trial.
Similar incidents also happened in Talbot County where dissenters were imprisoned by the occupying military command. In Talbot County however, something very different occurred. Prosecuting attorney J.C.W. Powell learned that a Maryland politician, State Senator Henry Holiday Goldsborough, had embroiled himself in directing the Union troops on the arrest of Talbot civilians. Goldsborough was the leader of the Maryland Senate and a strong Lincoln ally. Attorney Powell was successful in having Talbot’s Grand Jury issue indictments against Goldsborough, along with the associated Union officers responsible for the arrests.
The military officers were removed from Talbot’s legal jurisdiction, but Senator Goldsborough lived in Talbot County and could not avoid prosecution. Shortly before Goldsborough’s trial General Dix issued a written communication to him stating that he was sending the military officers subpoenaed for his trial but was also sending four Provost Marshals “well armed.” In this communication, Gen. Dix left it to Goldsborough to authorize the Provost Marshals to arrest Judge Carmichael. In Dix’s after-action report to Secretary Seward, he noted that the Judge had been arrested in his courtroom for the maximum public impact per the stated desire of Seward. The imprisonment of Judge Carmichael and prosecuting attorney Powell had nothing to do with treason but was simply to protect a political ally of the President and to display the power of the federal government. The false report of “treason” was simply cover to make such a drastic measure publicly acceptable.
Some of those who read this will attempt to immediately defend President Lincoln’s actions. Human nature has not changed in 163 years and there are many who will blindly trust and defend their chosen political leader regardless of evidence. These events are our history which cannot be changed but which provide us with important insights and lessons that we should apply to the issues of our day.
For more on this important history to include the uncovering of the details regarding the imprisonment of the Maryland Legislature and other important Maryland leaders, please refer to my book “When Democracy Fell, The Subjugation of Maryland During the U.S. Civil War,” available on Amazon or locally at Vintage Books in Easton and Unicorn Books in Trappe.
Paul Callahan is a native of Talbot County Maryland, a graduate of the Catholic University of America and a former Marine Corps officer. When Democracy Fell is due for release on October 3, at all major retailers to include Amazon. Image of prisoners courtesy of “The Local History Channel.”
Charles Barranco says
Mr Callahan,
Excellent discussion of habeas corpus and history presentation. I look forward to reading, When Democracy Fell.
Michael Pullen says
On April12, 1861 Confederate artillery attacked US military forces at Ft. Sumpter, starting the Civil War that ultimately resulted in 620,000 American deaths.
The Confederacy had adopted a Constitution of its own, explained by Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, in the “Cornerstone Speech” he delivered on March 21, 1861 in Savannah, Georgia, upon his return from the Confederate Constitutional Convention:
“Our new government[‘s]…foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.[2][3]
Later in the speech, Stephens used biblical imagery (Psalm 118, v.22) in arguing that divine laws consigned black Americans to slavery as the “substratum of our society”
“Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders ‘is become the chief of the corner’—the real ‘corner-stone’—in our new edifice.”
The US Constitution provides:
Clause 2 Habeas Corpus
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
Congress authorized suspension of the writ of habeus corpus.
“The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, 12 Stat. 755 (1863), entitled An Act relating to Habeas Corpus, and regulating Judicial Proceedings in Certain Cases, was an Act of Congress that authorized the president of the United States to suspend the right of habeas corpus in response to the American Civil War…”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_Corpus_Suspension_Act_(1863)
Slaveholders in Maryland we’re openly sympathetic to the Confederacy and supportive of slavery, and given Maryland’s strategic position surrounding Washington DC together with Virginia, securing Maryland’s position in the Union and not the Confederacy was essential to preserve the US Constitution and survival of the Union.
President Lincoln took an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic..” Congress ratified Lincoln’s decision to suspend habeus corpus “in case of rebellion” to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. There’s no dispute or question about that.
The Civil War, brought on by the Confederacy, caused an estimated 620,000 deaths. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties
The radical idea that human bondage was morally justified, and that perpetuation of slavery justified the Confederacy to secede and commence a bloody Civil War is the real, tragic lesson that history teaches us. We should learn that lesson.
Lincoln was not a tyrant. Read his Inaugural Address,
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/1inaug.htm
Read his Second Inaugural Address:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/abraham-lincoln-second-inaugural-address-1865
Readers can judge for themselves which side was morally justified in doing what they did to cause and to finish that bloody conflict.
Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeus corpus was approved and ratified by Congress, and was perfectly lawful and constitutionally correct. On that issue, there’s no legitimate dispute.
Paul Callahan says
The suspension of habeas is pursuant to clause 1 of the Constitution which are powers delegated by the States to Congress and not the Executive. Much later in May of 1863 Congress did suspend it but ordered all imprisoned to have their charges reviewed and released as appropriate – that section was ignored by the Executive. So for a full two years the President had suspended habeas throughout the nation imprisoning thousands to include U.S congressman, political candidates and newspaper editors without any constitutional authority to do so whatsoever. Then ignored the Congressional mandate that all prisoners be given a review regarding their imprisonment.
But I believe you missed the point of this lesson from our past – If one of our most respected and venerated Presidents can abuse his powers and publish false information to mislead the American public – what President would not?
Michael L Pullen says
Lincoln preserved the Union at tremendous cost, including his own death.
The theory he misled the Country is not based on the facts as they occurred in the midst of an insurrection with the outcome in doubt.
The Constitution cannot speak or act for itself, it requires leadership capable of defending it in real time against an attempted overthrow of the Constitution itself.
Does it apply to give quarter to those who would overthrow it when, to preserve it, action is required?
Does your theory apply to justify the current administration’s attacks on the Constitution? Do you suggest some sort of equivalency between Lincoln and the current President?
Concern about the Constitution should focus on armed attacks on the United States itself, first and foremost. The framers understood insurrection as a unique circumstance and the Constitution they wrote and the people adopted, that Lincoln preserved, reflects that.
Mickey Terrone says
Please note that in Alec Stephens’ “Cornerstone” Speech, written when the Confederacy consisted of 7 states, the author mentions numerous states which he expected would soon join the Confederacy and others which he believed truly belonged in the new slave nation. Maryland, however, was not included. Stephens apparently knew better than to believe Maryland would be a much better fit than Pennsylvania or New York because the working class of America’s 4th largest city in 1860, Baltimore, would never allow themselves to accept competition with slave labor. Mr. Stephens likely had a long hard look at some of the 25,000 free blacks living and working in Baltimore society while he attended the 2nd Democratic Party Convention of 1860 there.
This reality appears to have impacted the Maryland state legislators meeting in Frederick in late April, 1861. As adamant as they were about not wanting to coerce the other slave states to remain in the Union, they well understood their state would be utterly ravaged if it seceded. Thus, they decided their legislature didn’t have the authority to declare Maryland for the Confederacy. The business leaders of Baltimore understood the likely calamities of northern power upon the city they had built on the northern model of manufacturing, banking, ship building and transportation. Stephens would very likely have agreed.
Lincoln’s unilateral actions to protect the Union and our Constitution from the insurrection that directly threatened to supplant it with the Confederate Constitution, brilliantly frustrated Jeff Davis et al, who well knew the Congress, not yet in session, had the power of habeas corpus. That is another reason they chose to fire of Fort Sumter in April 12, 1861. Lincoln even goaded Davis into starting the shooting war, the result of which overnight turned most northerners into determined soldiers. Thus Lincoln’s early suspension of habeas corpus in a time of war or insurrection is provided for in the Constitution and continues to confound his frustrated critics.
And of course, comparing the 1861 insurrection and Civil War that led to at the very least 620,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands more wounded and displaced people to Trump’s declaration of national immigration emergency is absurd.
Paul Callahan says
Mickey – Well done! I will mark my calendar commemorating this date in that you forwarded a historical analysis of Maryland that I agree with.
The Maryland Legislature did not want Maryland to secede but also did not want military coercion of the states. Our Legislature was working diligently on attempting a peaceful solution. Baltimore was very much tied to the commerce of the North and Maryland was well on its way in transitioning to a free and paid labor system.
The only disagreement is that the Constitution does not give the power to suspend habeas to the President regardless if Congress is not in secession or not. If the Founders wanted the President to have that power then it would say so in the Constitution but it does not. That was the argument Lincoln gave and it was shot down by Chief Justice Taney in 1861 and ex-Parte Milligan in 1866 and follow on cases. Even going back to early English law only Parliament and not the Crown could suspend. Lincoln did however have the power to convene Congress which he did but delayed the date until July 4th. Now if the Massachusetts militia can get to Washington in mid April, their Congressional delegates could have as well. Lincoln could also had convened Congress in Philadelphia or another northern state but he did not.
But all this is extraneous to my essay which is about the suspension of habeas and how it can be misused by our political elites. That is the lesson of our history which we should take careful notice of.
Thank you for your comment.
Mickey Terrone says
Thank you, Paul. At some point, I hope to be able to return the compliment.