Lincoln's Unconstitutional Actions

[kerry]

The issues are complex, but I think David Herbert Donald did a good explanation of a lot of this - he has an article about how Lincoln's conception of government powers stayed Whiggish his whole life, and that a lot of seeming inconsistencies can be explained by that; his conception fell outside the two-party structure. Lincoln's freedom of the press stuff is where there seems to be the most room for criticism; a president less principled than Lincoln could have done some real damage. The interpretations evolve so much over time that it is hard to answer anything definitively in my opinion, and I'm a non-practicing lawyer. It is certainly arguable Lincoln violated the Constitution, but it's also defensible. The martial law stuff seems inconsistent given Lincoln's position that the South had never left, and echoes today's debates over "enemy belligerents," as has been brought up. As for habeas corpus, it is one of the few things specifically mentioned in the Constitution.

There is but one sentence in the Constitution which mentions the writ of habeas corpus (art. 1, sec. 9, clause 2), which is in these words: “ The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

While defining rebellion and how far to go in using it causes controversy, in this case there was so clearly a rebellion that it seems completely justified. A lot of these issues were ripe for abuse, and I'm sure a lot of it occurred, not sanctioned by Lincoln.

The patronage and election rigged seemed almost accepted; that Lincoln was more involved in corruption than many like to admit is true; that corruption was at times the only way of advancing his agenda is probably also true. Because he had good objectives and a sense of proportion, it is hard for me to get very upset about it; as always, the problem is once another leader comes along, things can go bad fast if he's not a good one. Lincoln's presidency increased the power of the federal government and executive so much that it did lead to problems once Lincoln was gone. Whether he made the system better or worse is debatable; the system we ended up with was probably necessary to win the war, but certainly had its downsides.

I disagree that Lincoln was a white supremacist, although he can certainly be criticized for taking to long to question and act on certain commonly (though by no means universally) held racist beliefs and laws, and for playing to his audience's racial prejudices. I think that argument does a huge disservice to everything that was great about Lincoln - he may have mostly gone along with the social order, but he clearly believed or came to believe every person should be able to develop his or her talents, and that mattered a lot in his cumulative and ultimate decisions. To equate him with Douglas or many of the Confederacy's leaders on that point is a joke; they had totally different visions of the world and reveled in their supposed superiority and narrow perspective. A topic for another thread, but since it was mentioned I brought it up.

Donald's piece is here: https://books.google.com/books?id=_47AoF...cy&f=false (ch 10)
Lincoln and the Power of the Press also does a good job on this issue