Seven slave states seceded from the Union once Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Four more states joined when hostilities first began to erupt between North and South. This conflict transformed into a bloody civil war, one that saw brothers fight against brothers, and cost over 600,000 American lives. President Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union and fight the rebels. In these efforts, President Lincoln abused his enumerated powers and violated one of the fundamental rights of the nation he was trying to preserve when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus and ignored the Supreme Court while unreasonably defending his own illegal actions.
The writ of habeas corpus is perhaps the most important right a citizen possesses. Sir William Blackstone, the author of young Lincoln’s revered Commentaries on the Laws of England, said “the writ of habeas corpus [is] the most celebrated writ in English law” . The writ guarantees someone imprisoned by the government an appearance before a court where a judge will determine if they have been lawfully detained. Once suspended, the government has no legal responsibility to confirm the cause of detainment. This writ can be thought of as “the fundamental safeguard against lawless and arbitrary state action” . The power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus exists plainly within the Constitution of the United States of America. In Article One, Section Nine, the Constitution simply states, “the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion of the public Safety may require it” . However, this clause never specified which branch of government was responsible for this suspension, and definitely did not insinuate thi...
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...tion, which he believes makes clear that secession is illegal, without suspending habeas corpus. The President’s normally infallible logic is here again questioned; how can a president uphold the values and doctrines in the Constitution while illegally suspending one of the fundamental principles of citizenship?
In conclusion, President Lincoln violated Constitutional law and abused his enumerated powers when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, also referred to as the writ of liberty, within the loyal states. He disregarded the opinion of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court while illogically defending his own illegal actions. To preserve the Union, Lincoln sacrificed basic principles he, as a lawyer, understood the importance of. President Abraham Lincoln abused his presidential power, violating fundamental rights of the Union he was attempting to preserve.
One of President Lincoln’s most notable infringements was his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Within months of taking the presidential oath, Lincoln ordered the suspension of habeas corpus, citing “supra-constitutional reasons for taking unilateral executive action.” Attorney General Edward Bates’ defense of Lincoln’s actions regarding habeas corpus in which he refers to it as a privilege rather than a guaranteed civil liberty serves as basis for proving the illegitimacy of this act. If the writ of habeas corpus, which protects citizens from unlawful imprisonment, is viewed in the manner that Bates (and Lincoln for that matter) refers to it, one of the most basic constitutional liberties of a right to trial can easily be deprived and can very well devolve into despotism later
The writ of habeas corpus should have been filed towards the person directly accountable for Padilla’s containment. Therefore, Padilla should have filed against the commander of the military brig he was held at, which was located in South Carolina. However, it was also stated that the President did not have the power to declare American citizens, not located in a combat zone, an “enemy combatant.”
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus because he thought that he needed to crackdown on his political opposition. This allowed the military to arrest and imprison almost anyone who was in disagreement with Lincoln’s war effort. Lincoln decided that this freedom was no longer necessary and ordered the military to enforce the suspension. Chief Justice Taney responded to Lincoln and issued in his opinion that the president did not have this power.
The most blatant abuse of Lincoln's power was his suspension of habeas corpus. The suspension of this constitutional guarantee, by which a person could not be imprisoned indefinitely without being charges with some specific crime, around much opposition throughout the country. Although Lincoln himself made no concentrated efforts to suppress political oppositions, the repeal of habeas corpus enabled overzealous civil and military authorities to imprison thousands of people who were vocal in their opposition to the war against the South. During the war, in the case Ex parte Merryman, Chief Justice Taney ordered Lincoln to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a Southern agitator who had been arbitrarily jailed by military authorities in Maryland. Lincoln ignored the order. After the war, in the case Ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled that president could not suspend habeas corpus without the consent of Congress.
... law. No one should supersede their roles or take advantage of it, as President Bush did when he went behind the backs of Congress and proceeded with his unconstitutional tactics. Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the U.S, once said “America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” This is what America needs, a stable and able president and government to provide us with safety and protect our freedoms.
The Government of the United States, going against Mr.Padilla’s Constitutional rights and not providing him an opportunity to contest the legality of his detention, comprises the value of the Government’s accountability as a law-abiding state. In this particular case, it appears that government officers, including the president, believe that they should be able to do what is against pre-existing laws, if it is necessary to the preservation of the state and its citizens. However, this view raises some serious problems. If committed to a principle Rule of Law, one should never expect the government to act in an illegal way. The Rule of Law refers to “an end state in which all individuals and institutions, public and private, and the state itself are held accountable to the law, which is supreme” (Rule, n.d.). Therefore, the Rule of Law states, that every citizen is subject to the law, including the lawmakers themselves. All government officers of the States, including the president, the Justice of the Supreme Court, and all members of Congress, pledge to uphold the Constitution; affirming that the Rule of Law is superior to the rule of any human leader (Vile, 2006).
When Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, he made it perfectly clear that the secession of the South was unconstitutional. He was willing to compromise with the South on the issue of slavery, the driving force behind South’s secession. Unfortunately, South was not interested in compromising. After the Fort Sumter was forced to surrender by the Confederate troops, Lincoln declared war. Since he was running a centralized government rather than the South that believed in states’ rights over central government, Lincoln was able to efficiently mobilize Union’s people and resources. That, of course, played an essential role in the final victory, and is one of Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments.
The Constitution is the pulse of our nation, pumping freedom from sea to shining sea. The Constitution is alive, and it acts as a guide to our leaders throughout the country, granting each citizen their individual rights. President Ronald Regan used the Constitution as framework for countless decisions in his eight years as president, from urging Mr. Gorbachev to “Tear down that wall!”, to maximizing the War on Drugs. President Regan utilized various limbs of the Constitution to serve the people in a multitude of ways, especially through Article II. Though the Article is compact, it has been understood and exercised in many different ways by our presidents. Our
With decades of brewing tensions between the northern and southern United States over issues including state’s rights versus authority, westward expansion and slavery. All the built up tension between the North and the South exploded into the American Civil War. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America; four more joined them after the first shots of the Civil War were fired. They seceded because they thought their way of life was threatened by the elected president. Four years of brutal conflict were marked by historic battles. In the Civil War there was brothers against brothers and neighbors against neighbors who were all
Welch, Gruhl, Rigdon and Thomas (2011) assert that, according to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the executive power is granted solely to the President of the U.S. This clause of the constitution has continued to draw significant constitutional debate since the ratification of the Constitution. For example, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, in 1793 questioned whether the clause affords residual power to the President outside the enumerated powers stipulated in the Constitution. This debate is still significant in the contemporary times because it has a direct impact on the power of the President, and also, as an essential insinuation, it impacts on the freedoms and liberties of U.S. citizenry at home and in foreign countries. In this context, Pika and Maltese (2004) argue that, it is essential to mention a number of prominent Supreme Court cases that involve the outline of executive powers that have transpired, informed by in the perspective of foreign affairs, as well war. Therefore, it is not unforeseen that today, in the War on Terror, the...
In the spring of 1861 tensions exploded in America, the tension was started over slavery, westward expansion, and states rights. Abraham Lincoln became president angering the south because Lincoln was a republican who opposed slavery. 7 states in the south chose to leave the north and form the Confederate states of America. After the first shots of the Civil War were fired four more southern states joined the Confederate forces, the Confederate forces all together formed the Confederate States of America. The biggest battles of the Civil War were the battles of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville.
Habeas Corpus or the “Great Writ” is widely considered to the preemptive cornerstone our human civil liberties within the United States jurisdiction as it is deeply rooted within common laws of social ordinance. Habeas corpus was generally conceived by the English as early as 1215 and signed into law by King John during his short tenner, however, formally recognized in 1679. Commonly re...
...itution, there is an allotment for the suspension of habeas corpus if there is an instance of rebellion, which the Civil War was. Adams’ and Wilson’s policies, however, blatantly defied the Constitution. Although it is true that they did it in good intent, it’s similar to a poor person robbing a gas station to get some food; it may be with good intentions, but it is still wrong. The Constitution is what we, as Americans, have accepted as our unbreakable laws. In our eyes, the Constitution is almost sacred. So, when Presidents decide that their laws can override what we believe to be just, it lessens the value of the Constitution. It is my belief that in times of crisis or war, when national survival is at stake, the upholding of our Constitution is more imperative than ever, to prove to American citizens that our government will stand by what they have promised us.
He was abusing his powers as president and using them for wrong. If every president were to do this they would get away with a lot of stuff they shouldn’t get away with. President or not, they should still be treated with equal rights as every other American citizen.
Consequently, seven southern states seceded the Union, in order to become the Confederate States together with four more states. This “War Between the States” ceased 1865, with the Confederates´ surrender. During the Civil War, President Lincoln published the Emancipation Proclamation, sure that freeing slaves would insure the Union overpowering confederates. Despite this, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the U.S., a constitutional amendment would have ended slavery at that time. Since the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to 11 Confederate states at war with the Union, and other states the Union had no control over.