Storyteller Rehnquist’s Afternoon Secret Is History

The murder trial of a New York congressman 142 years ago has produced a clue to one of the capital’s current mysteries: Where is Chief Justice William Rehnquist heading when his dark sedan pulls out of the Supreme Court garage at midafternoon on many weekdays?

Several people familiar with the chief justice’s commuting habits say he regularly heads for his northern Virginia home at midafternoon to pursue his avocation as a historical researcher.

It’s more than a hobby for the 76-year-old widower: It has led to publication of several widely respected history books--”Grand Inquests,” about the impeachment trials of Associate Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Jackson in the 1800s, and “All the Laws About One,” about how presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, suspended certain civil liberties in wartime.

And it’s provided historical tidbits that Rehnquist sprinkles through his periodic addresses at law schools or judicial conferences.

That’s how and where Rep. Daniel E. Sickles of New York resurfaced last month. Rehnquist, addressing a ceremony marking the 200th anniversary of the federal courts of the District of Columbia, noted that lawyers and judges in his audience could remember dramatic proceedings in local courts in recent decades, such as the Watergate cases presided over by U.S. District Judge John Sirica. So, said the chief justice, “I will concentrate on some lesser-known cases a little farther back in history.”

He began with the 1859 murder trial of Sickles, who was accused of shooting the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Philip Barton Key. The victim’s father was Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star Spangled Banner,” and his uncle, Roger Taney, was then serving as chief justice of the United States.

Rehnquist continued: “Although Key was a widower with four young children, he was apparently something of a Lothario, and became involved with Sickles’ wife after meeting her at President Buchanan’s inauguration.”

Sickles discovered the romance, and on a Sunday afternoon--Feb. 23, 1859--looked out the window of his home onto Lafayette Park and “saw Key walking by. Sickles followed Key to the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Madison Place (the northeast corner of the White House grounds) where he approached the unsuspecting Key, accused him of destroying his home and family, and began shooting.”

“Key’s killing preoccupied the public, with one New York newspaper noting that the tragedy is the ‘absorbing topic of conversation, the never-tiring subject of eager and fierce discussion.’ ”

The trial began April 4, 1859, and lasted 21 days, but it took the jury just a little more than an hour to find Sickles not guilty--an outcome widely expected since printed commentary at the time had declared Sickles justified in killing the man who had seduced his wife, Rehnquist said.

“Sickles was reportedly carried out of the courtroom by his admirers,” Rehnquist said.

Sickles went on to serve in the Army of the Potomac, fighting at Antietam and Gettysburg, where he lost a leg. When he died at the age of 94 in 1914, he was one of the last surviving generals of the Civil War, Rehnquist said.

Rehnquist omitted a few facts about Sickles. After his trial, he reconciled with his wife. In the post-Civil War period, Sickles was military governor of the Carolinas before being named U.S. minister to Spain. He later became sheriff of New York County, then served in Congress again from 1893 to 1895. He was chairman of the New York Monuments Commission until 1912, when he was removed amid accusations of embezzlement. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

And, as always in his public appearances, Rehnquist made no reference to any current examples of the intersection of politics and jurisprudence, saying nothing about the high court’s controversial rulings in December that effectively resulted in George W. Bush winning the presidency.