History of the Supreme Court of the United States

Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864-1888, Part 1B is the second part of the sixth volume of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States. In these volumes, Charles Fairman examines the activity of the Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, considering issues of procedure, doctrine, technicalities of pleading, and the precedents and consequences of the Court’s work. The second of the two parts enumerates and examines specific issues that confronted the Supreme Court during this period, including the Legal Tender Act litigation, property confiscation and wartime private contracts in the South, and railroad bond-aid controversies. Part 1B also provides a comprehensive discussion of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act. The concluding chapter is a summation of Salmon P. Chase’s chief justiceship and the significance of his tenure for the Supreme Court and its history.