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Civil War Tore Apart the Federal Judiciary, Too
July 27, 2011
As the United States marks in 2011 the 150-year anniversary of the start of the Civil War that so tested the nation, it must be noted that the long and bloody fight had a similar effect on the federal court system and its judges – a tearing at the very fabric of American justice.
Many future judges saw military duty during the war, on both sides. Many judges resigned from their lifetime appointments and joined the judiciary of another nation, the Confederate States of America. Others became judges under extraordinary circumstances.
In a series of postings, we will look at some of their personal stories. The first focuses on U.S. District Judge Andrew Magrath in the District of South Carolina.
Appointed by President Franklin Pierce in 1856, Magrath saw the writing on the wall November 6, 1860 – the day Abraham Lincoln was elected as president. Addressing a meeting of a grand jury the next day, the judge waited until the end of the jury’s work to make a personal announcement.
“Feeling an assurance of what will be the action of the state, I consider it my duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes,” he said, according to William Robinson Jr.’s 1941book, Justice in Grey. “That preparation is made by the resignation of the office which I have held. For the last time, I have, as a judge of the United States, administered the laws of the United States within the limits of the state of South Carolina.”
With that, Magrath tore off his robe and left the bench. Many who were present in his courtroom wept. Six weeks later, South Carolina seceded from the Union and declared its national independence.
Magrath subsequently served during the war as a judge in the District of South Carolina for the Confederate States of America and then as South Carolina’s governor. After the war, he practiced law in Charleston, from 1865 to 1893.
Federal Judiciary and the Civil War: A Series