Rebellion in the Temple of Justice

Ghost Courts of the War Between the States

In 1860, news of Abraham Lincoln's election arrived in Charleston like a fire alarm. In the United States courtroom on Chalmers Street, the grand jury simply refused to go on. All eyes are on the judge. In a dramatic moment, Judge A.G. Magrath, tears off his robes and tells jurors and spectators that, rather than continuing under tyranny, his Temple of Justice is forever closed. Thus in this long-since forgotten room took place the first official act of disunion, predating the Ordinance of Secession by over a month and lighting the fuse that lead to war.

Preserving a piece of history few knew existed, trial attorney Warren Moise takes the reader back in time to the courts and law practice of a different era. Ride into the frontier town of Spartanburg by night with two tired lawyers where to their surprise they see hundreds of sweating men fighting bare-fisted in the flickering torch light. Just as important, learn the never-before documented role of the bench and bar in the battle for secession and of the Confederate States court, where the CS Attorney prosecuted former US Attorneys James L. Petigru and Edward McCrady for contempt because they defied Confederate law.

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