 Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the strong desire of the opposing factions within the state to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war.Newly elected 16th President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865, served 1861–1865), suspended the constitutional right of "habeas corpus" in Maryland; and he dismissed Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court's "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer from Baltimore County arrested by the military and held in Fort McHenry (then nicknamed the "Baltimore Bastille").The Chief Justice, (but not in a decision with the other justices), had held that the suspension was unconstitutional and could only be done by Congress and would leave lasting civil and legal scars.