Will Lincoln go down in History,as America's Dictator President?

[Rob Wick]

Herb,

My problem with the word "dictatorial" comes with its obvious pejorative nature. To call Lincoln a dictator implies that his actions were the work of a tyrant seeking power for his own sake with no regard for those he led. I simply don't agree with that. There can be no question that Lincoln did things that would be extra-legal in time of peace. However, the country was not at peace. Faced with an ongoing and flagrant internal threat, Lincoln did what he had to do to see the crisis through. And it should not be forgotten that Congress gave his actions their retroactive stamp of approval.

In 1929 James G. Randall wrote "Lincoln in the Role of Dictator" for the South Atlantic Quarterly (reprinted in Lincoln's American Dream edited by Kenneth L. Deutsch and Joseph R. Fornieri from where I take my quotes). In it, he expanded on an idea he first broached in Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln. In the article, Randall first went through the bill of particulars against Lincoln, and then point by point refuted the charge that Lincoln indeed was like a dictator, at least as his early 20th century countrymen understood the term. I won't go into great detail on Randall's article, but a few points merit mention.

First, Randall acknowledged that during the time previous to the Civil War, "the Lincoln administration was departing from established precedent." However, Lincoln regretted that this was necessary. Randall argued that Lincoln was "solicitous to preserve constitutional restraints" although Randall admitted that "Infraction of the Constitution was one of the many unfortunate concomitants of civil war." But Randall pointed out that Lincoln could have gone much further, and indeed was urged to by others in his own party and outside the government. "Yet even here we should remember that, amid the war psychology of the 1860s, Lincoln would have found Congressional and popular support in considerable degree for more drastic action than he actually took."

Second, Randall pointed out that Lincoln submitted to popular election during the midst of the war, and even made preparations for what he believed to be his likely defeat by George McClellan in 1864. Someone who thirsts for the power of a dictator would have never even allowed for the holding of an election, but that didn't fit Lincoln's temperament.

I believe Randall summed it up best in CPUL when he said that if Lincoln was to be called a dictator, at least he was a benevolent one. Lincoln, Randall argued, used his war powers like the surgeon's knife, which he said cuts in order to save.

And Lincoln, given his strong belief that popular government could not be proven "absurd" made the point I will close with. "And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. it presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic, or democracy--a government of the people by the same people--can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes...It forces us to ask: 'Is there in all republics this inherent and fatal weakness?' Must a government of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"

Best
Rob