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5. Courage to Undertake These Extraconstitutional Measures
- Southern Illinois University Press
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43 c h a p t e r f i v e Cour age to Undertake These Extr aconstitutional Measur es Chief among the characteristics that make a great leader a hero is that of courage. The circumstances that gave rise to the Civil War that Lincoln inherited as president presented opportunity after opportunity for Lincoln to demonstrate his unwavering courage. Lincoln seized upon each of these opportunities, upheld his principles, and remained steadfast even in the face of widespread criticism. A hero is someone who can distinguish and act upon between the peripheral and the essential—between what is merely desirable and what must be done. For Lincoln, this meant all else had to be sacrificed to the overwhelming necessity of holding the Union together, behind the principles of the Declaration of Independence. As scholar James M. McPherson observes, Lincoln’s focus on a singular idea aligns him with the hedgehog in British philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s famous commentary on the hedgehog and the fox. Berlin describes the hedgehog as a thinker or leader who “relate[s] everything to a single central vision . . . a single, universal, organizing principle” and the fox as a leader who “pursue[s] many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory.”1 McPherson accurately describes that Lincoln is “one of the foremost hedgehogs in American history.”2 His central vision was one of America as a “nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal . . . shall not perish from the earth.”3 And, Lincoln would let “[n]o small matter . . . divert [him]” from the paramount goal of saving the nation.4 44 | These Extraconstitutional Measures In the eighty days that elapsed between his April 1861 call for troops, marking the beginning of the Civil War, and the official convening of Congress in special session on July 4, he implemented a series of crucial acts by sheer assumption of presidential power. In April 1861, on the heels of the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor by Confederate forces, Lincoln called for reinforcements to protect Washington, D.C.5 Responding to his call for state militias, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment arrived in Baltimore, where riots had congested the streets, and rioters attempted to prevent troops from reaching Washington.6 The regiment from Massachusetts forged its way from one railroad station to another; twelve soldiers died, and several more were wounded.7 By then, the Civil War was underway. The nation’s capital was in jeopardy, given that it was bordered by Virginia, a secessionist state, and Maryland, whose threats to secede were widely known.8 Newspaper headlines loudly proclaimed the horror endured by the soldiers passing through Baltimore. Giving its readers a glimpse, the New York Times reported, “Parties of men half frantic are roaming the streets armed with guns, pistols and muskets . . . a general state of dread prevails.” In the days and weeks that followed, the city of Washington was severed from the states of the North. Troops stopped arriving, telegraph lines were slashed, and postal mail from the North reached the city only infrequently.9 Lincoln understood the grave danger that the war would be lost if the Confederates seized the capital or caused its complete isolation, but he was reluctant to suspend the Great Writ.10 Finally, prompted by the urging of Secretary of State William H. Seward, Lincoln the attorney concluded that the suspension of habeas corpus could not wait.11 Although Congress was in recess that April 1861, Lincoln, relying on the constitutional authorization that the framers had perceptively included years before, issued a proclamation suspending the writ, knowing that his duty to protect the capital and the Union required such an action.12 Lincoln’s unilateral suspension of habeas corpus between Washington and Philadelphia was instrumental in securing communication lines to the nation’s capital.13 The effect was to enable military commanders to arrest and detain individuals indefinitely in areas [52.15.189.48] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 23:31 GMT) These Extraconstitutional Measures | 45 where martial law was imposed.14 Many of those detained were individuals who had attempted to halt military convoys.15 Lincoln further understood that a declaration of martial law was necessary to divest the civil liberties of those who were disloyal and whose overt acts against the United States threatened its survival.16 Lincoln’s actions did not go unchallenged; criticism was rampant. Despite the urgent situation, his critics bemoaned his habeas decision as an act of civil...