Monday, April 8, 2013

Barnett on Salmon P. Chase

[We posted this notice of my colleague Randy Barnett's paper last year. Recently we learned from the law review that the article, 63 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 653 (2013),  is available here and that a video of Professor Barnett delivering the article as the 2012 Sumner Canary Lecture at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law is here.]

 Randy E. Barnett, Georgetown University Law Center, has posted From Antislavery Lawyer to Chief Justice: The Remarkable But Forgotten Career of Salmon P. Chase, which is forthcoming in the Case Western Reserve Law Review.  Here is the abstract:

Salmon Chase (LC)
Salmon P. Chase was as responsible as any single person for the abolition of chattel slavery in the United States. Yet his name is barely known and his career is largely forgotten. In this paper, the author seeks to revive his memory by tracing the arc of his career from antislavery lawyer, to antislavery politician, to Chief Justice of the United States. In addition to explaining why this is a career worth both remembering and honoring, the author offers some possible reasons why his remarkable achievements have largely been forgotten.