Ableman V. Booth
This Supreme Court case in 1859 asserted the supremacy of federal law and federal courts over the states. It also showed the depth of northern abolitionists' anger over the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision and the lengths to which they would go in their fight against the peculiar institution.
In 1854, abolitionist editor Sherman M. Booth was arrested for violating the Fugitive Slave Act when he helped incite a mob to rescue a black fugitive from Wisconsin federal marshal Stephen V. R. Ableman. Booth appealed to the state supreme court, which ruled the federal law unconstitutional and ordered Booth's release. When Ableman turned to the federal courts, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed Booth's release and again declared the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 unconstitutional.
The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's opinion, state courts had no power to review or interfere with federal laws. Taney still was anathema to the North for his actions in the Dred Scott case two years before. But the Supreme Court, although it was divided along sectional lines, was unanimously opposed to this use of John C. Calhoun's doctrine of nullification, even though it had been invoked by northern antislavery forces for purposes completely opposed to Calhoun's.
See also Abolitionist Movement; Nullification Controversy.
