Lincoln on Democracy

"THIS Is ... A PEOPLE'S CONTEST"

Lincoln and Union, 1861 "THIS Is ... A PEOPLE'S CONTEST" From a Message to Congress in Special Session [JULY 4, 1861] 217 With the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln believed "the last ray ofhopefor preserving the Union peaceably expired. " His extraordinary war message to Congress was, in historian Don E. Fehrenbacher's words, an effort at "mobilizing the national will" to put down the rebellion. Lincoln forcefully defined the war to come as a struggle to save democracy itself and itspromise ofa ''fair chance in the race oflife"for every American. When it was delivered, however, one Baltimore newspaper, The South, thought it proved that Lincoln was either "a disgusting fool" or "the equal, in despotic wickedness, ofNero or any ofthe other tyrants who havepolluted this earth." ... this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy-a government of the people, by the same people-can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes. It presents the question, whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics , this inherent, and fatal weakness?" "Must a government, of necessity , be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation. Soon after the first call for militia, it was considered a duty to authorize the Commanding General, in proper cases, according to his 218 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY discretion, to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; or, in other words, to arrest, and detain, without resort to the ordinary processes and forms of law, such individuals as he might deem dangerous to the public safety. This authority has purposely been exercised but very sparingly. Nevertheless, the legality and propriety of what has been done under it, are questioned; and the attention of the country has been called to the proposition that one who is sworn to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," should not himself violate them. Of course some consideration was given to the questions of power, and propriety, before this matter was acted upon. The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed, were being resisted, and failing of execution, in nearly one-third of the States. Must they be allowed to finally fail ofexecution, even had it been perfectly clear, that by the use of the means necessary to their execution, some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of the citizen's liberty, that practically , it relieves more of the guilty, than of the innocent, should, to a very limited extent, be violated? To state the question more directly, are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single law, would tend to preserve it? But it was not believed that this question was presented. It was not believed that any law was violated. The provision of the Constitution that "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," is equivalent to a provision-is a provision-that such privilege may be suspended when, in cases of rebellion, or invasion, the public safety does require it. It was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the public safety does require the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was authorized to be made. It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short, and a decisive one; that you place at the control of the government, for the work, at least four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of dollars. That number of men is about one tenth of those of...