Secession on trial: the treason prosecution of Jefferson Davis

The imprisoner's dilemma

Two lions of the New York bar

O'Conor's bluff

The Civil War as a trial by battle

The return of the rule of law

Speed issues an opinion

Public opinion and its uses

Thaddeus Stevens, secession, and Radical Reconstruction

Underwood and Chase

Secession and belligerency in Shortridge v. Macon

Richard Henry Dana comes on board

The reach of the Prize Cases

Two embattled Presidents

O'Conor's triumph

Epilogue : Texas v. White and the "settlement" of secession's constitutionality.