Lambdin P. Milligan

Milligan, who was of Irish descent, was born on a farm near Saint Clairsville, in Kirkwood Township, Belmont County, Ohio. His parents were Moses Milligan Sr, a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, and Mary (née Purday) Milligan. At Huntington, Milligan edited a local newspaper, The Democratic Age, in 1849–50, but it went out of business within a year. He resumed his law practice in 1853. ==Marriage and family==

Milligan married Sarah L. Ridgeway on October 27, 1835, the same day he passed the Ohio bar. The couple had three children. Sarah died on November 20, 1870. Three years later, on August 12, 1873, Milligan married Maria L. (née Humphreys) Cavender, a widow who was a native of Madison, Indiana. ==Lawyer and anti-war Democrat==

From his youth, Milligan was active in partisan politics. As a young man, he took a prominent role in Belmont County Democratic Party affairs in defense of Jeffersonian states-rights positions. During the Nullification Crisis of the early 1830s, he echoed South Carolinian John C. Calhoun's stance that the states could "nullify" offensive federal laws. He followed Calhoun into the Whig Party, but then followed Calhoun back to the Democratic Party when President Martin Van Buren wooed him back to the fold. Milligan continued to be active in Democratic Party affairs after his move to Indiana. Resuming his law practice after a hiatus of real estate speculation and holding county positions, he developed a solid reputation as a successful lawyer, mostly representing small railroad companies. Milligan also ran as a Democrat for political office, but consistently lost at the polls. In 1862 he failed to secure Indiana's Democratic nomination for a seat in Congress, and in 1864 he failed to get the Democratic nomination for governor of Indiana. By the end of 1863 military authorities in Indianapolis believed that Milligan was involved in a conspiracy against the United States and sent army detectives to observe his actions. Arrest and detention On September 17, 1864, General Alvin Peterson Hovey, commander of the Military District of Indiana, authorized a military commission to meet on September 19 at Indianapolis, Indiana, to begin trials of those placed under military arrest. Among them was Lambdin Milligan, who was arrested at his Huntington home on October 6, 1864. Two other men, James B. Wilson and David T. Yeakel, were also seized. Because President Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus on September 24, 1862, as authorized under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, and Congress ratified this action on March 3, 1863, with the passage of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, no warrant or affidavit was issued to show justification for Milligan's arrest. Dodd escaped from jail during his trial and fled to Canada. He was found guilty in absentia on October 10, 1864, and sentenced to hang. Charges against Bingham, Heffren, Harrison, Yeakel, and Wilson were dismissed with deals to be witnesses for the military prosecution. Trial and conviction The military tribunal for the trial of Milligan, Bowles, Horsey, and Humphreys convened at Indianapolis on October 21, 1864. The commission considered five charges: • Conspiracy against the U.S. government • Offering aid and comfort to the Confederates • Inciting insurrections • Disloyal practices • Violation of the laws of war The defendants were accused of establishing a secret organization that planned to liberate Confederate prisoners from Union prisoner-of-war camps in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; steal weapons from an arsenal; raise an armed force to incite a general insurrection; and join with the Confederates to invade Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky and make war on the U.S. government. Democrats charged that the arrests and trials by military commission were politically motivated amid a climate of bitter political disputes between Democrats and Republicans about the conduct of the war. Scholars who have studied the trials believe the adjutant general did not adequately prove that Milligan was guilty of the charges made against him. In addition, they suggest that the trials, which were highly publicized in the press, were prompted by partisan politics, convened before commission of biased military officers, failed to follow the rules of evidence, and used questionable informers as witnesses. The Indianapolis Daily Sentinel, which supported the Democrats, blamed Governor Morton, a Republican, for the arrest and detention of its editor, Bingham, and called on the state's voters to oppose Morton's re-election in 1864. During the trials, members of the military commissions made speeches at Republican rallies. The controversial proceedings led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Ex parte Milligan. On December 10, 1864, Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey were found guilty on all charges and sentenced to hang on May 19, 1865. Humphreys was found guilty and sentenced to hard labor for the remainder of the war, but his sentence was later modified, allowing his release. Efforts were made to secure pardons for Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey, with the decision passing to President Andrew Johnson following Lincoln's assassination. On May 16 the executions of Milligan and Bowles were postponed to June 2, and Horsey's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. President Johnson approved commutation of the sentences for Milligan and Bowles to life imprisonment on May 30, 1865. The prisoners were transferred from Indianapolis to a federal prison at Columbus, Ohio. Circuit Court appeal On May 10, 1865, Jonathan W. Gordon, Milligan's legal counsel, filed a petition in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana at Indianapolis for a writ of habeas corpus, which called for a justification of Milligan's arrest. Justice David Davis, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal circuit court judge, and Judge Thomas Drummond, another federal circuit court judge, reviewed Milligan's appeal, which claimed he should not have been tried by a military commission. The two judges disagreed over the issue of whether the U.S. Constitution prohibited civilians from being tried by a military commission and passed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. ==Ex parte Milligan==

The case, now known as Ex parte Milligan, was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 5 and March 13, 1866. The Court was asked to consider three questions. Should a writ of habeas corpus be issued, based on Milligan's petition? Should Milligan be discharged from custody? Did the military commission have jurisdiction to try and to sentence Milligan? The Court considered only the issues relating to whether or not the commission's proceedings were constitutional, and Milligan's eligibility for a discharge from prison. The legal team representing the United States was U.S. Attorney General James Speed, Henry Stanbery, and Benjamin F. Butler, a Civil War general who became a congressman and governor of Massachusetts. Milligan's representatives included James A. Garfield, a member of Congress and a future U.S. president; Jeremiah S. Black, President James Buchanan's U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Secretary of State; David Dudley Field, a New York lawyer and brother of U.S. Supreme Court justice Stephen Johnson Field; and Joseph E. McDonald. In Milligan's defense. Garfield used precedents from an eighteenth-century English legal case that challenged the Royal Navy's civil authority involving the execution of a royal governor without due process after he ordered the execution of an army private for allegedly inciting a mutiny. On April 3, 1866, Justice David Davis handed down the Court's decision, which ruled that the writ of habeas corpus could be issued based on the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act (1863). The Court ruled that the congressional act and the laws of war did not permit the imposition of martial law where civilian courts were open and operating unimpeded. Discharge from prison Milligan and the others petitions were granted a discharge. Milligan was released from custody on April 12, 1866, and the Court's opinion was read during the next Court session, on December 17, 1866. Justice Davis delivered the majority opinion, explaining that Milligan, who was a civilian not in military service and resident of a state in which civilian courts were still functioning, had a right, when charged with a crime, to be tried and punished according to the law. The civilian courts were still operating in Indiana at the time of Milligan's arrest, trial, and incarceration. Chief Justice Chase and three associate justices filed a separate opinion concurring with the majority in the judgment, but asserted that Congress had the power to authorize a military commission, although it had not done so in Milligan's case. ==Later years==

After Milligan's release from prison, he returned to his home and law practice in Huntington, Indiana, where the locals gave him a "great ovation". In 1868 Milligan filed a civil lawsuit in Huntington County, Indiana, seeking $500,000 (~$ in ) in damages for conspiracy, false imprisonment, and libel related to the Ex parte Milligan case. His civil case, "the first major civil rights jury trial held before the federal courts," was referred to the U.S. Circuit Court for Indiana at Indianapolis, where it evolved into Milligan v. Hovey, a two-week jury trial held in May 1871. Several men involved in Milligan's treason trial, including Alvin P. Hovey and Oliver P. Morton, were named as defendants. Milligan's legal counsel was Thomas A. Hendricks, a former state legislator, member of Congress, and future governor of Indiana. Benjamin Harrison, an Indianapolis lawyer and future U.S. president, represented the defendants. The jury was asked to consider what damages, if any, Milligan had sustained relating to Ex parte Milligan. Harrison portrayed Milligan as a traitor and argued that his actions prolonged the war. Milligan refused to admit his affiliation or actions with a seditious organization. Hendricks focused on Milligan's "malicious prosecution and false imprisonment." The jury's verdict in Milligan's favor was issued on May 30, 1871. Although Milligan sought thousands of dollars in damages, state and federal statutes limited the claim to five dollars plus court costs. In 1880 Milligan became a member of the Republican Party, and in his later years supported Garfield's campaign for president. Milligan retired from his law practice in 1893. ==Death and legacy==

Milligan died of natural causes at his son's home in Huntington County, Indiana, on December 21, 1899, thirty-three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case that bore his name. ==See also==