Looking at Civil War and Lincoln Essay

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Abraham Lincoln expanded the presidential powers at the time of the American Civil War.

This paper will examine how Abraham Lincoln expanded the presidential powers at the time of the American Civil War (Writer Thoughts, n.d).

Civil War Background

A key event in the historical consciousness of USA is its Civil War that took place between 1861 and 1865. While the 1776-1783 revolution led to the nation's creation, its Civil War determined the type of nation America would be. It resolved a couple of important issues that the revolution failed to settle, namely: 1) whether America was to remain a dissolvable confederacy of numerous free, independent States or become an indivisible country having a sovereign federal government; and 2) whether America, whose fundamental declaration was that all of mankind has been created with equal rights to freedom, would remain the world's largest slaveholding nation (McPherson, n.d). By spring 1865, every principal Confederate army yielded, and when the Union's cavalry caught the absconding Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederates, on the 10th of May, 1865 in Georgia, resistance was totally crushed, and the dreadful war came to an end. The painful and lengthy process of reconstructing a united country free of the malice of slavery commenced.

Victories in the North ensured the U.S.'s preservation as a single nation, whilst effectively abolishing the barbaric system of slavery, which was responsible for dividing the nation since its formation. However, these victories cost as many as 625,000 American soldiers' lives -- a death toll almost equivalent to that resulting from other wars wherein America participated, combined (McPherson, n.d). This internal war is regarded as the West's largest and deadliest conflict between the 1815 Napoleonic Wars and the First World War that began in the year 1914. It was triggered by uncompromising disputes between the slave states and Free states, over national governmental power to put a ban on slavery in those territories that were yet to become states. After Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln's ascendency to the post of President in the year 1860, his pledge and efforts to keep the territories free of slavery led seven Deep South slave States to secede and form the Confederacy -- their own nation.

Lincoln Expands Presidency Powers

The legislative, judicial, and executive branches' powers were tested during the nation's Civil War, with every branch seeking to maintain and broaden the range of their powers (Burlingame, 2008). Michael Burlingame, the historian, claims that Abraham Lincoln flouted the clear-cut Constitutional provision that empowered the nation's Congress to organize an army. On the 1st of July, 1861, Lincoln justified his stand to Illinois senator Trumbull, stating that he was unaware of any legislation for authorizing some of the things he did during the war, but believed they were necessary, and that, for saving the laws and the constitution, it was better to perform a few illegal actions, and save all from being overthrown. In the era when Lincoln became President, presidential powers were hotly debated. One among the most critical tools at the President's disposal, for saving the Union, was flexibility. Lincoln asserted before the senators of Maryland in October of 1864 that he was striving to maintain, rather than overthrow, the U.S. government. His struggle, in particular, was preventing other parties from defeating the government. In order to do so, he could not avoid extending the powers exercised by his antecedents, while insisting that his actions were controlled by events. A more correct way of putting it would be: Lincoln made use of events for justifying already-anticipated actions.

The popular belief is that Lincoln was the greatest President in the U.S. history, though not without a few critics. Some blamed him for perpetrating "executive usurpation," because he expanded Executive office powers at the time of the nation's Civil War -- this topic was discussed in the Lincoln Studies Center's fall lecture (Studying Lincoln's use of executive power, n.d). Rodney Davis, the Center's co-director, acknowledged its advisory board, and subsequently introduced Jennifer Weber, the lecturer who was to speak on the topic: "Lincoln and Executive Power." "

Lincoln's use (for some, abuse) of power was compared to that of his antecedents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. At the time of Lincoln's assuming office, in March 1861, the U.S. government's executive branch had limited power, and was small in size. However, by the time he left office, it grew in power as well as size. Critics labeled him as "tyrannical," for suspending habeas corpus and ignoring one of the decisions made by the Supreme Court's Chief Justice.

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Other American Presidents who faced war cited Abraham Lincoln as the precedent and reason for the expansion of their powers. Following the Fort Sumter attack, Lincoln organized an army and engaged in war with the Confederates, a Constitutional privilege allowed only to the Congress (Studying Lincoln's use of executive power, n.d). Further, he suspended the habeas corpus writ, which, according to a few of his critics, was his most dramatic action. Weber maintained that in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, the term habeas corpus was employed in passive voice by the Founders, leading to confusion regarding who was authorized to suspend it. The exact Constitutional statement regarding habeas corpus is, "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."

Furthermore, Lincoln realized that the President's extraordinary powers in times of war only lasted as long as the emergency did (Williams, 2011). In his response to New York Democrats and Erastus Corning, who condemned his actions, one can clearly see that Lincoln was not a dictator: he states that he no longer believed that the country's government couldn't constitutionally take any strong measures during times of rebellion, which couldn't be taken lawfully during times of peace. This, he claimed, by taking the following example, that: it isn't necessary that a certain drug proven harmful for a healthy man won't make good medicine for one who is sick.

Presidential powers were dramatically enhanced, thanks to the American Civil War, as Abraham Lincoln strove to defend the Constitution and the Union. In a special Independence Day message to the Congress, in the year 1861, Lincoln emphasized how the Deep South states' separation undermined the nation's Constitution, by stating that all the laws that had to be executed sincerely were facing resistance and not being implemented in about 33% of American states (Burlingame, 2008). He raised the question of whether all laws should be allowed to ultimately fail, despite clearly seeing that, by using requisite means for their execution, any one law that was made in "extreme tenderness of citizens' liberty" and practically relieving "more of the guilty, than of the innocent," should be violated to a rather limited extent. In simpler words, should every law save one to go unexecuted, with the nation's government itself going to pieces, for fear of violating one? Abraham Lincoln was strongly determined to exercise his powers and continue this contest till he achieved success, or suffered death or defeat, or reached the end of his term as President, or faced abandonment by the nation or the Congress. He controlled the issue of slavery via a succession of clever moves. This, he began, by rejecting the military emancipation orders of John Fremont and David Hunter, in August 1861 and May 1862, respectively (Burlingame, 2008). Paul Finkelman, the legal scholar, writes that President Lincoln reprimanded the latter for taking action without authority; however, he was not against the theory underlying Hunter's order, which was that, slavery wasn't compatible with a free nation and with smooth military operations for quashing the rebellion. This rejection facilitated the constitutionally-permissible (according to Lincoln) presidential emancipation.

Many times in the course of the Civil war, President Lincoln or the members of his Cabinet issued orders that suspended the writ. Of these, the first was issued in the early days of his presidency. It was scarcely a month since Lincoln became President when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter's federal garrison in April of 1861, setting off the war. One among the chief concerns of Lincoln was maintaining an unhindered route between the North and Washington, D.C. (Greenberg, n.d). He was anxious of the fact that, if Maryland seceded with Virginia, Washington would be trapped between hostile states. A riot began on 19th of April, when 20,000 supporters of the Confederacy attempted to prevent Union soldiers, in Baltimore, from traveling between train stations on the way to Washington. Therefore, on the 27th of April, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in places on the Washington-Philadelphia route. This gave Union generals the power to capture and detain anybody threatening public safety, without trial, in these areas. The move gave rise to controversy, which escalated to dangerous proportions when Marylander John Merryman, was detained for insurrectionary actions. He was instantly jailed, but petitioned for habeas corpus, which was granted by Roger Taney, U.S. Supreme Court's Chief Justice. However, Fort McHenry's commanding officer (Fort McHenry….....

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