Rebellion In The Temple of Justice

Rebellion In the Temple of Justice: The Federal and State Courts in South Carolina During the War Between the States by Warren Moise is an interesting little book about the Bench and Bar of the State of South Carolina during "The Late Unpleasantness With the North" a.k.a. "The War Between the States," a.k.a. "The Civil War," or, as I like to call it, "The War Against Yankee Aggression."

It's really a short little book, because, the truth is, nothing much happened in the Confederate Courts. The Confederate States of America only existed for four short years.  As detailed in this book, many judicial districts simply shut down because all of the lawyers had gone to the army.  The book recounts that in some places in South Carolina not enough adult male white landowners ( the only people who could vote or sit on juries) could be found to empanel a jury.

Nevertheless, I found this little book to be fascinating.  The portrait of the antebellum legal profession in South Carolina was very interesting.  For the most part, the existing Federal Courts just became the Confederate Courts and all the Court same Court personnel kept right on working with no interruption.

The gentleman whose portrait is on the front of the book is United States District Court Judge A.G. McGrath who resigned from his post immediately upon receiving news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President.  McGrath told the Grand Jurors that he would rather close "the temple of justice" forever than continue it under Northern Tyranny.  Not surprisingly, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed McGrath as the new Confederate Judge and McGrath continued doing his job until being elected Governor of South Carolina in 1864.

This kind of thing is not everybody's cup of tea.  There are some tedious descriptions of long dead lawyers and judges, but over all I enjoyed this little book a lot.