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Sponsor |  Ogmin | Dec 18, 2005 9:36am | In light of recent events, I was moved to go back and check on the situation that Lincoln faced during the war when he suspended the right of habeas corpus and the alarm it raised in the north.
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Lincoln's Dilemma
"Their sympathizers pervaded all departments of the Government and nearly all communities of the people . . . under the cover of "liberty of speech," "liberty of the press," and "habeas corpus," they hoped to keep on foot among us a most efficient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand ways . . . Or, if as has happened, the Executive should suspend the writ, without ruinous waste of time, instances of arresting innocent persons might occur, as are always likely to occur in such cases; and then a clamor could be raised in regard to this, which might be, at least, of some service to the insurgent cause . . . Yet, thoroughly imbued with a reverence for the guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow to adopt the strong measures which by degrees I have been forced to regard as being within the exceptions of the Constitution, and as indispensable to the public safety . . . the time [is] not unlikely to come when I shall be blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many . . . Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? . . . I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy.
President Abraham Lincoln
in a letter to Erastus Corning dated June 12, 1863
Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus
September 24, 1862
Lincoln's Constitution
An interview with Daniel Farber
Lincoln's Crackdown
(Slate)
Abraham Lincoln's
SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE
to the US Congress
July 4, 1861
Justice Taney
on Lincoln's Suspension of Habeas Corpus |
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|  |  214878 | Dec 19, 2005 4:19am | The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. Treasures include Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, his March 4, 1865, draft of his second Inaugural Address, and his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln's Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president. In its online presentation, the Abraham Lincoln Papers comprises approximately 61,000 images and 10,000 transcriptions.
memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html [memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html] |
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Sponsor | | Ogmin | Jan 1, 2006 9:41am |
The Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free.
Lincoln read this document to his Cabinet on September 22 and told them that he firmly believed in its principles, though he would accept minor changes of wording. Secretary of State William H. Seward, a former Governor of New York and lifelong abolitionist, suggested certain additions which strengthened it and then actually wrote in his revisions. Except for these revisions and the formal beginning and ending written by the Chief Clerk, the document is otherwise entirely in Lincoln's hand. The next day the nation's newspapers gave prominent attention to the Proclamation, beginning a discussion of its importance which culminated three months later.
Some have questioned the true significance of the Emancipation Proclamation in U.S. history. However, a black freedwoman from Buffalo with a son in the 54th Regiment, New York Infantry, wrote to Lincoln of the Proclamation:
"They tell me, some do, you will take back the Proclamation, don't do it.
When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours
will make the Angels sing your praises." |
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Sponsor | | Ogmin | Nov 24, 2006 6:22pm | | FORWARD! |
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Sponsor | | fredbear | Nov 24, 2006 6:29pm | mrlincolnstmails.com [mrlincolnstmails.com]
"Just when we might think nothing new can be written about Lincoln comes Wheeler's eye-opening, highly orginal, and altogether captivating take on the Lincoln legacy: Old Abe as the first master of new technology".
Harold Holzer, co-chairman, U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission |
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Sponsor | | Ogmin | Nov 27, 2006 9:29am | Here's a quick test. What are the first words that come to mind when you think of the name Abraham Lincoln?
Your list probably goes something like this: honesty, patriotism, the Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg -- and more likely than not, stovepipe hats.
Wheeler's new book, Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War, aims to bring new clarity to the much-analyzed question: How did the Union defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War?
How Lincoln Won The Civil War |
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|  akarra | Jan 29, 2007 8:59am | I have enjoyed writing on Lincoln, and while my thoughts are primitive, I hope you will find something of interest in them, and criticism is always welcome. Here is a commentary on the Gettysburg Address that explains how it might be a commentary on equality, a commentary on Lincoln's Second Inaugural that attempts to untangle its teaching on divinity and history, and one on Lincoln's last little speech at his hometown, before going to Washington to assume the Presidency. I think the next time he was there was after the assassination.
My apologies if you hate self-promotion. I do feel my work does complement much of the discussion above. |
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American Civil War → Discussion