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Join author and historian Thomas C. Mackey as he discusses his book, Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime.Opposing Lincoln argues that the problem of political dissent in wartime in a political democracy is fraught with numerous political and legal challenges and, thus, an evergreen question over the course of United States history. Focusing on the experience of noted Copperhead, Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, whom the military prosecuted with a military commission (not a trial in the civilian courts), his arrest, trial, and appeal tested the limits of political dissent in wartime during the Civil War long before the rise of a civil liberties conscious judiciary and populous. As distinguished political scientist, Louis Fisher, has said, “Mackey analyzes the constitutional collision between Vallandigham’s public opposition to national policy during the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to limit political speech whenever needed to promote national goals.”
Thomas C. Mackey earned his undergraduate degree from Beloit College and, in 1984, he earned his Ph.D. in United States Legal and Constitutional History from Rice University. He then served a post-doctoral fellowship at New York University School of Law. He has taught at Michigan State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Kansas State University. In 1991, he joined the History faculty at the University of Louisville where he served as Chair from 1999-2004. He is the author or editor of five books, the most recent of which the University Press of Kansas published in 2020 entitled, Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandingham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime. After 31 years at the University of Louisville, he retired on July 1, 2022.
Sponsored by the Frankfort Civil War Round Table, Capital City Museum, and PSPL.
Please register at https://www.pspl.org/event/cwrt-mackey. For more information, contact Megan Pickett at (502) 352-2665 x108 or [email protected].
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
319 Wapping St, Frankfort, KY, United States, Kentucky 40601
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