He denounced President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, as unconstitutional.
Shortly after that, he was elected attorney general of Kentucky. He joined the Union army and advanced to the rank of colonel before resigning his commission after his father’s death. During the Civil War (1861–1865), Harlan was a staunch Unionist. He briefly became a “Know Nothing,” in 1857, and was then a Constitutional Unionist in support of John Bell in the 1860 election.
#Separate but equal definition warning series#
After passing the bar and beginning practice in 1853, he entered Whig Party politics.Īs the Whig Party disintegrated, Harlan underwent a series of political and philosophical changes. Harlan earned a bachelor’s degree from Centre College in Danville and spent two years at Transylvania University in Lexington before he finished his studies by reading law at his father’s law office. His father, James, was a lawyer, Whig, and congressman. Harlan was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, and was named for the great Chief Justice John Marshall. Harlan underwent political and philosophical changes after the Whig Party disbanded Harlan’s position on this matter became known as the doctrine of incorporation, a doctrine that became important in twentieth-century First Amendment and civil rights litigation. He was an early campaigner for the incorporation of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights (including those in the First Amendment) into the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, where they would limit the states as well as the federal government. Serving on the Court for 34 years, Harlan became a committed champion of civil rights for minorities (mostly in dissent). John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911), a lawyer and Supreme Court justice, transformed himself over time from being a slave holder and advocate of the institution to becoming a strong proponent of the Union and defender of First Amendment rights. (Image via the Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress), public domain) Harlan transformed himself over time from being a slave holder and advocate of the institution to becoming a strong proponent of the Union and defender of First Amendment rights. Justice John Marshall Harlan I between 18.
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