How Did Lincoln Lose His Power

“It is an ancient English legal concept that empowers judges to order imprisoned persons to be brought into core to determine if they are being legally held” (Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty). This quote comes from “Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty” showing how the writ of habeas of corpus allows a fair trial for all criminals. The Constitution and Bill of Rights includes accused persons the right to fair and speedy trial, a jury of peers, and protection from cruel or unusual punishment. “On September 24, 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation unprecedented in American history. He suspended the writ of liberty everywhere in the United States. The suspensions applied to Confederate spies or to those who aided the rebel cause, interfered with military enlistments, resisted the draft, or were ‘guilty of any disloyal practice” (Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty). Mrs. Surratt was accused to be an aid in the rebel cause and the suspension of the writ of liberty affected her trial immensely. Mary Surratt’s execution was not equitable because she did not have access to the basic rights given to U.S.

On July 4th 1862, the confederates surrendered the town of Vicksburg to Ulysses S. Grant. This influenced Lincoln to make the biggest decision of his life. He delivered the Emancipation Proclamation on November 19th, 1863, saying the nation’s fundamental goal is that all men are created equal. He states in the speech, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” He wants the country to understand that we are starting something new. The soldiers have struggled to recreate our country, and that the country needs to take advantage of this opportunity. He has now committing himself to getting rid of slavery. On January 31, 1865, Congress officially ends slavery with the thirteenth amendment. The thirteenth amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” After many years, slavery has finally ended. Lincoln passed the thirteenth amendment, meaning slavery can no longer exist in his country. This will help recreate the country that has been broken for many years. From February 1863 through April 1865, Lincoln believed the best way for this country to unite was without slavery, contradicting what he believed from the start of his senate race to Post First

Throughout American history, the writ of habeas Corpus has been the basis of the legal system of the United States, meant to preserve civil freedoms. Habeas corpus established a constitutional check on any dictatorial power that tried to present itself. It allowed any individual that was arrested to stand in front of the court to challenge whether they were being imprisoned according to the law of the land, ensuring their civil liberties weren 't threatened; however, only in times when the stability of a country was threatened could it be temporarily suspended. President Lincoln came into office in 1861 and by the

o Lincoln 's reputation as the great emancipator rests largely on his emancipation proclamation, an executive order which went into effect on January 1st, 1863. This order ostensibly freed all the slaves in territory currently rebelling against the United States, i.e. in areas where the US government had no authority to free slaves. This is rather like the United States announcing that, from here on out, North Korea would be ruled by Lady Gaga. Sure, it 's a great idea, but it 's not really your jurisdiction. In areas where the US did have the authority to free slaves--the border states and some of the areas of the Confederacy that had been effectively conquered and occupied by federal troops, those slaves were not freed. So Lincoln

In The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo he writes that Lincoln was a dictator, flagrantly violated constitutional freedoms, violated civil liberties, justified his actions by its necessity of the war, and permitted because of war powers that are never clearly defined except putting down rebellion, the real motive was to centralize power under his dictatorship government. While he was president, Lincoln committed numerous violations of civil liberties including the suspension of habeas corpus, instituting martial law, using military tribunals for civilian trials, suppressing free elections, interfering with state legislatures, engaging in a war without the consent of congress, blockading southern ports, censoring telegraphs and newspapers, authorizing a mass execution of natives in a Sioux uprising in Minnesota. In Lincoln’s Constitution, Daniel Farber,

The brutality and hardships of the Civil War were also still occurring during this time, making people even more angered because they were busy worrying about their country, far too busy to have any desire to worry about slaves. In the film, though, Lincoln came to view that the war was God’s divine punishment for the sin of slavery, so making sure that this amendment passed during this time was extremely important to him no matter what it took to do so. It is also very apparent in the movie how incredibly unorthodox this amendment seemed to many of the political figures. With democrats opposing the amendment, and even the republicans who were supposed to be in favor of the amendment having their own shaky confidence with it, it was clear that this issue was very ugly and unnerving to do; a vital part of history. Lincoln had many tactics though throughout this fight for a piece of equality that helped him win all the votes needed to pass the

This illegally increased the size of the army, which was also a power only reserved for the Congress, and authorized illegal voting methods for the Union border states. Congress had generally supported all of these decisions, but Lincoln further justified them by claiming that desperate times called for the measures he took.He also later promised to obey the Constitution once the war was over.

On September 15, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln temporarily suspended Habeas Corpus, which is the right to due process. Anyone who was a confederate sympathiser or spoke out against the war were arrested, put in jail and weren 't given a trial until after the war was over. Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus because he wanted to suppress dissenters to strengthen the War effort. More than 13,000 civilians in the Union were arrested under martial law throughout the War. Lincoln viewed his action as justified since he believed the country was in a time of crisis.

Abraham Lincoln should have been impeached, because he overstepped his executive power. He is often hailed as a hero, an abolitionist, and a dignitary; yet the decisions he made could be considered abuse of his presidential power. For example, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, as well as he upheld the Declaration of Independence above the Constitution. In many countries, authorities may take citizens and incarcerate them for months if not years without charging them. Those imprisoned have no legal means and they don’t have the ability to protest or challenge such imprisonment; hence why the framers of the U.S. Constitution included a clause in the Constitution that would allow courts to issue writs of habeas corpus, a protection

I agree that Lincoln certainly took advantage of his power when he declared temporary imprisonment of state legislators who were pro-secession, censored disloyal newspapers, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus because this took away the freedom of the people. These actions looked like a dictator authorized these, to be honest. In spite of his “breach of power” behaviors, I would still support his decisions because it was apparent that he did all of these for the sake of the nation. Because of these, the disunion of the two sections was avoided. These rash acts also prevented other states to secede that could destroy what the founding fathers

Also, it is self evident that Lincoln wants to finish the war, not end the war. In the Cartoon by Currier and Ives, The Old Bulldog, Democratic nominee McClellan is portrayed as asking Lincoln to call off the old dog (Grant). To which Lincoln replies “I think its best to give the old bull dog full swing to go in and finish them!” (Currier 1). Although modern day presidents have attempted to avoid the suspension of Habeas Corpus, by using military tribunals, no modern day president has faced such a drastic situation as Lincoln did with his country on the verge of self detonation. The Civil War called for drastic measure to be taken and although the core issue within the Civil War was States rights, I believe as an African American male that the underlying, but most commonly talked about issue with the civil war was the fight on slavery. I believe that Lincoln was right in his actions of suspending Habeas Corpus. Even though he might not have had the constitutional right himself, I believe that he used the suspension in exactly the way the fore fathers had imagined it be

He backed it up with Article I, Section 9, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states, "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. "(Longley, 1). However a chief of justice stated that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was Lincoln's was unconstitutional Also during that same period the martial law was put in place into all the states. Martial law is the suspension of ordinary law and instead using the military as government, it is used when civilians authorities fail to function effectively. The effect of the nation was that the union could arrest spies and traitors.

As a president, one’s major goal is to keep the country and its people safe, regardless of what may be necessary to do in order to protect the people. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, had this goal in mind when he declared a State of Emergency in the U.S. in 1863, and suspended American’s civil liberties such as habeas corpus. The Union and the safety of Americans were more important to President Lincoln than civil liberties, and restricting them was necessary. The rebellion and invasion of Confederates justified the restriction of civil liberties because the safety of American citizens is superior to these civil liberties.

We can thank Lincoln for provoking the conflict. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was wrong and somewhat against the constitution.

Now this issue by Lincoln was used against John Merryman, who was a state legislator from Maryland. He was arrested in turn for attempting to disrupt or hinder