Sherman Booth

Sherman Miller Booth was a Wisconsin Republican newspaper editor (Wisconsin Free Democrat) who in 1854 led a Milwaukee mob to free Joshua Glover, a fugitive from slavery, from federal custody under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Booth was twice convicted in federal court for violating the Act; the Wisconsin Supreme Court twice ordered his release on habeas corpus, holding the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed in Ableman v. Booth (1859), affirming federal supremacy. Booth served roughly a year of his sentence in Milwaukee's federal jail before being pardoned by President James Buchanan on March 2, 1861, the last day of his administration.