Description

The two volumes collectively entitled Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864-1888 comprise 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 Justices Salmon P. Chase and Morrison R. Waite, considering issues of procedure, doctrine, technicalities of pleading, and the precedents and consequences of the Court's work. The first of the two volumes is devoted to judicial politics and the internal history of the Court during the politically and constitutionally turbulent Reconstruction period. Fairman considers the Supreme Court's role in Reconstruction and its relationship to presidential and congressional Reconstruction policies. The second of the two volumes examines specific issues that confronted the Court during this period and 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.