Mistakes Of Lincoln Administration Essay

It is an accepted fact, for most, that Abraham Lincoln was one of the best leaders the United States has had. Before becoming president, Lincoln had been a lawyer, then politician. In the 1860 election, Lincoln was ran against and beat three other candidates. He was elected entirely by Northern states. This lack of representation for the South was the impetus for the secession of several states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas), who believed he would attempt to end slavery. It is important to note that this secession was completely legal within the Constitution and that Lincoln was neither inclined to, nor had the power to end slavery (as he himself said in his first Inaugural Address). When these

He assembled an army, blockaded Confederate ports, suspended Habeas Corpus and undermined the First and Second Amendments completely. While Lincoln did call in Congress later, on July 4, for approval of the army, his lax treatment of the separation of powers set a dangerous precedent regardless. Furthermore, the blocking of Southern ports remained unconstitutional, as “the Constitution permits such blockades only in time of war with a foreign power,” (DiLorenzo, 152) which the Confederate was not. In fact, Lincoln was adamant in the fact that the war was not a war, but rather the government putting down a “rebellion,” (“I shall not hesitate to use all the means at my control to secure the termination of this rebellion.”) His order for the confiscation of weapons (through the Confiscation Act) was against the Second Amendment, and he disrupted the right to free speech and press when he ordered for any newspaper critical of him or the war to be shut down. The publishers of such newspapers were imprisoned, and all telegraph communication was censored. Lincoln even went as far as exiling a Senator who spoke out about him (Clement Vallandigham.) Citizens were arrested and imprisoned without trial, due to the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. In 1863, the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act was passed to release the Lincoln administration from being held accountable for

Most citizens, even those from the North, disagreed with Lincolns policies. In fact, “internal improvements” funded by state subsidies- a part of the American System which Lincoln was very passionate about- were forbidden by constitutional amendment in several states (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, etc.) The Civil War itself was also rightfully unpopular in both the North and the South. On November 7, 1861, Maryland’s House Committee on Federal Relations released a declaration asking for the cease of war, which was definitively ignored. Newspapers, politicians and regular citizens called for peace but most were simply arrested and imprisoned. Thousands were imprisoned without trial, on the basis of rumors alone. They were kept in horrible conditions in prisons like Fort Lafayette, which was nicknamed the “American Bastille” due to the amount of inmates it contained. There, they were fed “a piece of fat pork, sometimes raw and sometimes half cooked, and coarse bread cut in large thick slices.”(DiLorenzo, 141) and were given water which sometimes “would contain a dozen tadpoles, from one-quarter to one-half inch long” (DiLorenzo, 141). It was clear that the officers had no concern for their comfort. The Peace Movement in the North was just about destroyed through physical intimidation. Even so, the South was hit even harder. The blockades strangled the economy and stopped medicine from reaching the sick. The army