Our Next Presentation

The Civil Warriors CWRT of the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles will hold its next meeting of 2025 on Wednesday, November 12, at 7PM Pacific Time in-person only. We are pleased to host a presentation by Ed Pearson, who will be talking about:

"Lincoln's Supreme Court"

Lincoln assumed the Presidency with war looming. The war would reveal a facet of American political life in the tension between national security and individual liberty, a conflict played out in the decisions of the Court. Within a very short time after Lincoln’s inauguration, the Court was down to six justices, not a Republican among them. At the helm was aging Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision, a decidedly pro-slavery opinion.  How would Lincoln’s war measures fare in the face of a potentially hostile Court? 

In his time in office, Lincoln appointed five justices, including a new Chief Justice, and these men collectively gave Lincoln wide latitude to conduct the war with the harsh measures that restricted individual freedoms and for which he was condemned by a wide swath of the public. This talk will focus on the role of the Court in the time of the Civil War, including how the Court vacancies were filled, the “packing” of the Court with a tenth justice in 1863, the ascendancy of Samuel Chase to the position of Chief Justice, and how the Court handled the constitutional issues facing the country.

Edward Pearson was born in San Diego to a Naval officer father.  He bounced around the U.S., including two years spent at the Naval base at Guantanamo.  He went to high school back in San Diego, then came up to LA to go to USC, then to USC Law School. Ed has been an attorney since 1978, practicing in the field of Estate and Trust Law.  He is currently with the firm of Overton, Lyman & Prince, whose claim is it is the oldest firm in Los Angeles.  Ed has always been a student of history generally, U.S. history particularly, and Civil War history even more particularly.  He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Pasadena CWRT, holds the office of Vice President, and serves as our "Trivia Master" at each meeting.

We will be meeting in-person at the Chatsworth Olive Garden, 19724 Nordhoff Place. We meet in the back room (“the 80’s Room”) of the restaurant; the doors for the room open at 5:30 at which time you can order from their extensive Italian menu. There is a $5 attendance fee to support our CWRT plus it gets you an entry to our book drawing. If you’re a first-time visitor to the Civil Warriors and wish more information, please contact us at cwrtsfv@gmail.com . Guests, new members and returning members are always welcome to join us for this and future meetings! If you can’t make this meeting, please consider one of our exciting upcoming meetings noted on our Future Presentations page.

Future Presentations