Maryland State Archives

Legal Brief: William Hinks v. The Brigantine Juliana

Libel case; considered the first case ever tried in the Federal District Court of Maryland

MSA SC 5463-1-1

Letter, James Monroe to the Marshall of the District Court of Maryland

MSA SC 5463-1-2

Writ of Habeas Corpus issued by Elias Glenn for Victor Diffry

MSA SC 5463-1-3

Oath taken by Roger Brooke Taney on his appointment as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

MSA SC 5463-1-4

Certificate of appointment of Thomas Finley as US Marshall for the District Court of Maryland. Signed by President Jackson

MSA SC 5463-1-5

Petition of Columbus Breescup for Writ of Habeas Corpus

MSA SC 5463-1-6

Petition of Deborah Hazlett for her son James Hazlett for Writ of Habeas Corpus

MSA SC 5463-1-7

24 Fed. Cas. 337-340; Petition of Elizabeth Turner (colored) by her next friend Charles Henry Minowky for Habeas Corpus. Filed September 18, 1867. This was the first in a series of cases brought relating to apprenticeship of the children of former slaves.

Useful Secondary Sources:

Fuke, Richard Paul. Imperfect Equality: African Americans and the Confines of White Racial Attitudes in Post-Emancipation Maryland. New York: Fordham University Press, 1999.

Hyman, Harold M. The Reconstruction Justice of Salmon P. Chase: In Re Turner and Texas v. White. University Press of Kansas: Landmark Law Cases and American Society. July 16, 2003. http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/hymrec.html (last accessed, 2004/09/06)

Entire original case papers, and opinion, including Chase's signature, still in the files of the Federal District Court, Baltimore, MSA SC 5463-1-8, as well as the case as reported in the Federal Reporter, 24 Fed. Cas. 337-340.

Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Matter of Ralph Abercrombie, a prisoner [Confederate Spy].

MSA SC 5463-1-9

National Archives

Record Group 21, Federal Court Records

Legal Resources

Harvard Law School - Finding Records and Briefs

 Katherine R. Everett Law Library (UNC Chapel Hill) on Briefs and Records

Maryland State Law Library

Union List of Appellate Court Records and Briefs: Federal and State

U.S. Courts homepage

Ex Parte Merryman, April 1861 Term Case No. 9,487, 17 F. Cas. 144

"Ex Parte Merryman: Proceedings of Court Day, May 26, 1961." Maryland Historical Magazine 56 (Baltimore: 1961): 384-398.

Reverdy Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, June 17, 1861 Source: Library of Congress

Abraham Lincoln, [May-June 1861] (Message to Congress, July 4, 1861, Handwritten Draft
In this message, Lincoln discussed why he felt habeas corpus should be suspended. Source: Library of Congress

"There's life in the old land yet" by James Ryder Randall
No publication date is given, however, one verse says:

Bigots! ye quell not the valiant mind,
With the clank of an iron chain,
The spirit of freedom sings in the wind,
O'er Merryman, Thomas, and Kane,
And we, though we smite not, and not thralls,
We are piling a gory debt;
While down by McHenry's dungeon walls,
There's life in the old land yet!

See also: Secondary sources.

United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, March Term, 1945. No. 5273. Appealed from the District Court of the United States for the District of Maryland.

T. Henderson Kerr and Louise Kerr, Appellants, v. The Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore City, a corporation, et al., Appellees.

Brief for Appellants

Appendix to Brief for Appellants

Brief for the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore

Brief and Appendix for Library and Library Trustees, Appellees

Opinions:

Kerr v. Enoch Pratt Free Libary of Baltimore City, 54 F. Supp. 514 (D. Md. 1944).

Kerr v. Enoch Pratt Free Libary of Baltimore City, 149 F.2d 212 (4th Cir. Md. 1945).

Other materials:

"Louise Kerr Hines: The claims examiner's 1940s lawsuit cleared the way for African-Americans to work as Pratt librarians." The Baltimore Sun, 14 April 2007.

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. No. 6113.

Philip Boyer, et al., Appellants, vs Robert Garrett, et al., Appellees.

Appeal from the United States Court for the District of Maryland (Chestnut, J.).

Brief and Appendix for Appellants

Brief for Appellees