Lincoln makes the argument in his Peoria Speech that wherever slavery spreads it permanently pollutes the body politic in ways that can’t be fixed.
Isn’t this argument flawed? Isn’t it true that women, children, and those poor whites without enough property to be able to vote, were also, like the enslaved, not part of the sovereignty that created the nation—to paraphrase Taney– and yet there is no argument from Lincoln that their presence in a society somehow damages it beyond repair. So is there a distinction between the enslaved and those in the list above that makes a real difference in the health of a society and if so why? Or is Lincoln just wrong here and deploying a weak argument?
2.Please explain one of the three alternate readings of Section 13 of Judiciary Act. You must explain the statutory ambiguity argument. Finally, in one sentence explain why these alternate readings are relevant to an understanding of Marbury.
