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Lincoln and Habeas Corpus
On April 27, 1861, the writ of habeas
corpus was suspended by President
Abraham Lincoln in Maryland during
the American Civil War Habeas
corpus, which literally means "you
have the body," is a constitutional
mandate requiring the government to
give prisoners access to the courts.)
Lincoln did so in response to riots,
local militia actions, and the threat that
the border slave state of Maryland
would secede from the Union, leaving
the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.,
surrounded by hostile territory. Lincoln
chose to suspend the writ over a
proposal to bombard Baltimore,
favored by his General-inChief Winfield Scott. Lincoln was also
motivated by requests by generals to
set up military courts to rein in
"Copperheads," or Peace Democrats,
and those in the Union who supported
the Confederate cause. Congress was
not yet in session to consider a
suspension of the writs.
His action was challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court in Maryland (led by the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney) in Ex Parte Merryman. Lincoln ignored
Taney's order.
When Congress convened in July 1861, a joint resolution was introduced into
the Senate approving of the president's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus,
but filibustering by Senate Democrats and opposition to its imprecise wording by Sen. Lyman
Trumbull prevented a vote on the resolution before the end of the first session, and the resolution
was not taken up again. Sen. Trumbull himself introduced a bill to suspend habeas corpus, but
could not get a vote before the end of the first session.
On February 14, 1862, Lincoln ordered most prisoners released, putting an end to court
challenges for the time being. He again suspended habeas corpus on his own authority in
September that same year, however, in response to resistance to his calling up of the militia.
Excerpts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_States
Lincoln and Reconstruction
With the fall of Vicksburg and New Orleans, Lincoln confronted the issue of how to "reconstruct"
the defeated states. Should Confederate leaders and soldiers be punished for treason, deprived of
their property, imprisoned, or exiled abroad? What about the average Confederate soldier? Should
they be given the vote? On what terms should the Confederate states be allowed back into the
Union? What powers would the Union have over the defeated states? And what about the former
slaves?
Initially, Lincoln hoped to off er an olive
branch to the defeated states by suggesting a
no-revenge policy towards the Confederacy.
When his forgiving tone enraged radical
Republicans, Lincoln backed off. On the issue
of slavery, he first talked about colonization as
the best solution, and he funded projects in
Central America and Haiti, both of which
never got off the ground. Concerned about the
election of 1864, Lincoln hoped to appeal to
border state Democrats with his Proclamation
of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which he
issued in December 1863. According to its
terms, Lincoln offered a presidential pardon to
all southern whites (with the exception of
government officials and high-ranking military
offices) who swore an oath of allegiance to the
United States and accepted the abolition of slavery. Additionally, if the number of white males
swearing allegiance to the Union equaled 10 percent of the voters in 1860, that group could form a
new state government.
Radical Republicans in Congress countered with their own Reconstruction proposal in the
Wade-Davis bill in July 1864. According to its provisions, a majority of a state's white voters were
required to take an oath of loyalty and to guarantee black equality. Then loyal state voters could
elect delegates to a constitutional convention as the first step in the readmission process. Lincoln
pocket vetoed the bill, and then invited southerners to rejoin the Union under either plan, knowing
that they would select his proposal without doubt.
When Louisiana whites took advantage of Lincoln's proclamation in 1864, they adopted a state
constitution that abolished slavery and provided a school system for whites and blacks alike. But
the document did not provide for suffrage for educated blacks or Union veterans, despite a
personal plea from Lincoln, though it did empower the legislature to enfranchise blacks. The
reconstructed Louisiana state legislature then passed labor laws aimed at putting the formerly
enslaved back on the plantations as low-paid wage laborers with limited freedom of travel and no
political or civil rights. Angry Republican congressmen, understanding these new laws to be a
reincarnation of the old slave codes, refused to admit Louisiana's representatives and senators to
Congress—or those from Arkansas and Tennessee, which had also organized under Lincoln's "10
percent plan." Nor did these Republicans allow the counting of the electoral votes from these three
states in 1864 election.
Following Union military successes and his reelection in the fall of 1864, Lincoln apparently had
second thoughts about his reconstruction plans. Two days after General Lee's surrender at the
village of Appomattox Courthouse, Lincoln promised that a new policy would be forthcoming. The
President intended to include voting rights for some blacks—probably for those owning property
and who were literate-and stronger measures, including an army of occupation, to protect their civil
rights.
Lincoln as Commander in Chief
The Civil War was fought on both sides by citizen-soldiers who volunteered for stints of between
ninety days and the duration of the war. A great many of them reenlisted after their time expired,
receiving bonuses and privileges. In March 1863, the Union passed a conscription law to require
military service, but even then nearly two-thirds of the new soldiers were volunteers. Lincoln
delegated the responsibilities of feeding, equipping, and transporting the Union forces to Secretary
of War Edwin M. Stanton, a former Democrat from Ohio. Stanton worked closely with the individual
states, which initially equipped and supplied their vastly expanded militia units. By 1863, the War
Department operated as an effective and massive government agency that linked the farms that
supplied the food and the industries that supplied the armaments to the battlefield with remarkable
efficiency.
President Lincoln took a personally active role in the war, visiting soldier camps in the D.C. area.
He also frequently intervened to grant presidential pardons to deserters and young soldiers who
were about to be executed for various crimes while in the army. In Lincoln's public messages, he
also demonstrated gratitude for the great service to the Union offered by his soldiers in blue. Most
of the volunteers greatly respected "Mr. Lincoln," as he was called by them.
Lincoln appointed and replaced his generals at a pace that most observers considered unwise. In
his mind, however, he wanted commanders who could win battles, pursue defeated armies, and
engage the enemy no matter the cost in lives or materials. He was impatient with all the training
and preparations for battle because he believed that the South was inadequately prepared to
accept substantial casualties and that the Union's superior numbers gave it a distinct advantage.
Lincoln cared little whether the officers were Democrats or Republicans as long as they could
manage men and were politically acceptable. He knew that he would have to make political
appointments in order to win support for the war in Congress, and he did so with dispatch and a
refusal to be bothered by the criticism of so-called professional soldiers. Lincoln responded to such
complaints by saying that everyone would just have to learn on the job.
His dismissal of George B. McClellan after that general had defeated the Confederate icon General
Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland took nearly everyone by surprise. Lincoln had
wanted McClellan to pursue and destroy Lee's retreating army at Antietam; he wanted the same
thing of General George C. Meade at Gettysburg. In Lincoln's mind, both of these Union victories
failed because they allowed the Confederates to escape intact to fight another day. Lincoln finally
found his ideal general in Ulysses S. Grant, the western commander who captured Vicksburg in
July 1863. Transferred to the eastern front, Grant fought Lee in a series of battles that pressed his
advantage in numbers and tenacity. In these engagements, Grant never retreated nor resisted the
opportunity to kill enemy soldiers. His protégé, General William Sherman, who had served with him
in the western theater, also won Lincoln's admiration by taking the war home to the southern
people on his march through the South, capturing Atlanta and laying waste to the southern
countryside. For Lincoln, the war might have ended months earlier if Grant or Sherman had been in
command at Gettysburg or Antietam. In Lincoln's opinion, every soldier killed in battle, and every
sacked southern home or burned field of crops, shortened the war and saved lives.
Opposition to Lincoln
For most of his tenure in office, Lincoln was
an unpopular president. There were two
main oppositional factions: Confederate
sympathizers in the Border States and lower
Midwest, and the peace wing of the
Democratic Party. The latter group believed
that the Civil War was undermining the
Northern economy, civil liberties, and states’
rights. Particularly objectionable to Northern
Democrats were two Lincoln administration
policies: emancipation and the military draft.
In 1861, Republicans started calling antiwar Democrats "copperheads", likening
them to the poisonous snake. By 1863, the Peace Democrats had accepted the
label, but for them the copper "head" was the likeness of Liberty on the copper
penny, and they proudly wore pennies as badges.
Copperheads felt that Lincoln was waging an unjust war and was inept at the
position of Commander in Chief. They claimed that Lincolns push for conscription
defied the Constitution and that the Emancipation Proclamation was illegal. They
opposed making the war about slavery and raised concerns that fee blacks would
come to the North and compete for jobs. Copperheads also claimed that Lincoln
was a proponent of “racial equality”, something that alarmed them to a great extent.
They complained that Lincoln was suspending the writ of habeas corpus, throwing
political opponents in jail without any reason, and halting the freedom of the press by
suspending newspapers that printed material against the military.
The most notorious Copperhead, Clement Vallandigham, a former
Ohio congressman, was arrested by the military commander of
Ohio in May 1863 for advocating—in his campaign for governor—
a negotiated peace and antiwar demonstrations. A military court
convicted him of treason and sentenced him to confinement for
the duration of the war. Lincoln banished him behind Confederate
lines to keep him from becoming a martyr. (By 1864,
Vallandigham was back in the North, drafting the peace platform
of the Democratic Party.) The incident raised serious questions
about the violation of Vallandigham's First Amendment rights—
freedom of speech—and the legitimacy of having military courts in areas like Ohio, in
which civilian courts functioned. (After the war, in Ex Parte Milligan, the Supreme
Court ruled unconstitutional military trials of civilians during wartime in areas where
civil courts are open and functioning.)
Lincoln and Presidential Power
As the most activist President in history, Lincoln transformed the President's role as
commander in chief and as chief executive into a powerful new position, making the
President supreme over both Congress and the courts. His activism began almost
immediately with Fort Sumter when he called out state militias, expanded the army
and navy, spent $2 million without congressional appropriation, blockaded southern
ports, closed post offices to treasonable correspondences, suspended the writ of
habeas corpus in several locations, ordered the arrest and military detention of
suspected traitors, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year's Day
1863.
To do all of these things, Lincoln broke an assortment of laws and ignored one
constitutional provision after another. He made war without a declaration of war, and
indeed even before summoning Congress into special session. He countered
Supreme Court opposition by affirming his own version of judicial review that placed
the President as the final interpreter of the Constitution. For Lincoln, it made no
sense "to lose the nation and yet preserve
the Constitution." Following a strategy of
"unilateral action," Lincoln justified his
powers as an emergency authority granted
to him by the people. He had been elected,
he told his critics, to decide when an
emergency existed and to take all measures
required to deal with it. In doing so, Lincoln
maintained that the President was one of
three "coordinate" departments of
government, not in any way subordinate to
Congress or the courts. Moreover, he
demonstrated that the President had a
special duty that went beyond the duty of
Congress and the courts, a duty that
required constant executive action in times
of crisis. While the other branches of
government are required to support the
Constitution, Lincoln's actions pointed to the
notion that the President alone is sworn to
preserve, protect, and defend it. In times of
war, this power makes the President literally
responsible for the well-being and survival of
the nation.
http://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/essays/biography/9
The Election of 1864
It is hard for modern Americans to believe that Abraham Lincoln, one of history's most beloved
Presidents, was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864. Yet by that summer, Lincoln
himself feared he would lose. How could this happen? First, the country had not elected an
incumbent President for a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832 — nine Presidents in a row
had served just one term. Also, his embrace of emancipation was still a problem for many Northern
voters.
Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year
earlier, the Southern armies came back fighting with a
vengeance. During three months in the summer of 1864, over
65,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing-inaction. In comparison, there had been 108,000 Union
casualties in the first three years. General Ulysses S. Grant
was being called The Butcher. At one time during the
summer, Confederate soldiers under Jubal Early came within
five miles of the White House.
Lincoln had much to contend with. He had staunch opponents
in the Congress. Underground Confederate activities brought
rebellion to parts of Maryland. Lincoln's suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus was ruled unconstitutional by Supreme
Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney — an order Lincoln
refused to obey. But worst of all, the war was not going well.
Some Radical Republicans were opposed to Lincoln's
reelection. Lincoln had asked Congress to seat representatives from three recently conquered
Confederate states--Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee--and also announced that when 10
percent of the voters in the rebel states (excluding high Confederate officials) pledged loyalty to the
Union (including government actions concerning slavery) they
would be readmitted to the Union. Radicals denounced the "10
Percent Plan" as too lenient. Congress in July 1864 adopted a
much more radical measure, the Wade-Davis Bill, which
required rebel states to abolish slavery, repudiate the
Confederate war debt, disfranchise Confederate leaders, and
require fifty percent of the citizens to pledge loyalty to the
Union. The radicals nominated General John C. Freemont for
President, but he withdrew a month before the election.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party split , with major opposition
from Peace Democrats, who wanted a negotiated peace at any
cost. They chose as their nominee George B. McClellan,
Lincoln's former commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Former General George B. McClellan and his running mate,
George Pendleton (who later began the U.S. Civil Service)
were strongly favored to win the election of 1864 - even
Lincoln..
The South was well aware of Union discontent. Many felt that if the Southern armies could hold out
until the election, negotiations for Northern recognition of Confederate independence might begin.
Everything changed on September 6, 1864, when General Sherman seized Atlanta. The war effort
had turned decidedly in the North's favor and even McClellan now sought military victory.
Two months later, Lincoln won the popular vote that eluded him in his first election. He won the
electoral college by 212 to 21 and the Republicans had won three-fourths of Congress. A second
term and the power to conclude the war were now in his hands.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/34e.asp
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=121
http://www.knowledgerush.com/wiki_image/9/9b/ElectoralCollege1864-Large.png