Having suspended habeas corpus, Lincoln ordered the arrest and imprisonment of virtually anyone who disagreed with his views - views that were new, radical, and not yet subject to any debate by the people's representatives in Congress or by the judiciary... Lincoln rationalized this suspension of constitutional liberties - at least in his own mind - with the rhetorical tool of falsely equating the Constitution with the Union... [even though secession] was certainly the belief of most Americans at the time. In the end, it was Lincoln's willingness to use brute military force, not his legal reasoning or his rhetorical talents, that allowed him to get away with such a radical assault on constitutional liberties.
~ Tom DiLorenzo,
The Real Lincoln, pp. 132-133
 |
| Marching in Step to the Music of the Union |
No comments:
Post a Comment