Good morning,
Today’s forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature of thirty-seven degrees.
There’s are book fairs at Lakeview School and the middle school today.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a dark day in American history, but misplaces the date by a day. The Society writes that on March 7th, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Dred Scott case; the case was actually handed down on March 6th of that year. In any event, here’s their entry:
On This Day: March 7
….On this date, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney overturned a Wisconsin decision involving the fate of abolitionist Sherman Booth. Booth and his followers had released Joshua Glover, a captured fugitive slave, from a Milwaukee jail on March 11, 1854. Authorities accused Booth of aiding and abetting a fugitive, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court found him innocent and declared the federal Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional in Wisconsin. The case caught the attention of lawmakers nationwide over the next six years, as federal and state authorities wrangled over Booth’s fate. On March 7, 1859, the U.S. Supreme Court gave judgment reversing that of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The case finally ended when President Buchanan pardoned Booth in March, 1861, just before leaving office. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes, pg 185-202]
The federal case, I think, brought forth the worst decision in American legal history.