Sean Dzierzanowski: "Abraham Lincoln"
On March 4. 1861, in our Nation's Capital, an unknown lawyer from the Midwest. Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the sixteenth President of the United States The atmosphere was tense. Hundreds of federal troops were stationed throughout Washington to protect the new President. Artillery pieces were positioned at key city streets. Sharpshooters lined the rooftops. To the south, seven states had left the Union, forming a loose confederation of states dedicated to the defense of slavery. Six more states were undergoing intense and divisive political battles over whether to remain loyal to the Union or to join their fellow Southern states in the new "Confederate States of America." The men and women in the crowd wondered whether the tall, gaunt, lanky, prairie lawyer whom they had elected as President would be up to the challenge of weathering the impending political Armageddon.
The Election of 1860 had been dramatic. The young Republican Party ran Abraham Lincoln, a former one-term Congressman from Illinois for President. Lincoln and his infant party ran on a platform which, among other things, supported a halt to the further extension of slavery. Many of the Southern states saw this plank as a direct challenge and insult to their economic and social way of life which relied heavily upon slavery. The Democratic Party would be split over the issue of slavery between two candidates. Senator Stephen Douglass, a moderate on slavery, would be nominated by the Northern faction and Vice President John Breckinridge, a stalwart pro-slavery Southerner, was nominated by the Southern faction. An additional factor entered the Presidential race with the candidacy of John C. Bell and the Constitutional Union Party that supported the preservation of the Union by any means necessary. With a divided Democratic Party and the addition of the Constitutional Union Party, the outcome of the election was almost certain. The inevitability of a Republican Administration had prompted Southern leaders to warn that if Lincoln would be elected, a sizable number of Southern states would secede from the Union. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, seven states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, seceded from the Union and formed a new country, the Confederate States of America.
On April 14, 1861, Confederate troops in Charleston, South Carolina bombarded the Union-held Fort Sumter. This nearly bloodless battle would spark the initiation of war between the United States and the Confederate States. Within three months of the attack on Fort Sumter, four more states: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, would join the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.
The Civil War is often seen as the epic battle over the morality of slavery. It was that, but it was also a great battle over questions left unanswered by the Founding Fathers and the United States Constitution. The conclusion of the Civil War would answer these questions. No longer would the United States be seen as a loosely connected band of sovereign semi-nations, instead the United States would be established as a strong and unified power. No longer would a country, which prided itself upon securing "... the blessings of liberty..." for all, tolerate the existence of slavery. At the epicenter of this Constitutional battle was President Abraham Lincoln. It was through President Lincoln's vision; determination and leadership that the country would remain united and the Constitution upheld.
The men who attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the hot summer of 1787 knew full well the problems with a decentralized government. Under the Articles of Confederation, the previous governing document, the federal government was nearly impotent. The federal government could not tax, regulate trade or conduct business without the near total cooperation of the states. The Founding Fathers rectified these problems with the United States Constitution. Under the new Constitution, the federal government had the power to levy taxes, regulate trade, establish a bicameral legislature which balanced power between large and small states, and specified the powers of the federal government while leaving other powers to the states. Also included in the Constitution was the Supremacy clause which stated that:
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
The Supremacy clause established the superiority of the federal government over state governments. This clause was important in that it attempted to rectify a perception held amongst some Americans prior to the adoption of the Constitution, that the United States was a loose collection of independent semi-states which only shared common borders, a common language and a similar culture.
The belief, that the federal government was superior to the states was however, not held in the antebellum period of the nineteenth century. This conviction in the supremacy of state governments was reflected in the referral by Americans to their native country as, "these United States," rather than "the United States." The Southern states, which seceded, left the Union due to a fear that the election of President Lincoln would lead to federal interference in slavery, which most Southerners perceived as a state issue. The Confederacy would often justify the Civil War as a conflict over "states rights." In the Confederate Constitution, the preamble would defend states rights stating that: "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character...."
The existence of the Confederacy was in fact a challenge to the Constitution of the United States. The Confederacy saw that their perceived right to hold slavery was so important that when it became probable that future laws would limit the exercise of slavery, the Southern states saw fit to dissolve the Union rather than obey any future law of the land.
President Lincoln acknowledged this belief. President Lincoln asserted throughout his Presidency that he conducted the Civil War in an effort to preserve the Union and the Constitution. In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln declared that:
"I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States."
President Lincoln was determined to preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout the Civil War. This determination would be tested throughout the Civil War. In 1863, following the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, Clement Vallandigham, a prominent anti-War Democrat in a speech before an Ohio crowd, called for Union soldiers to desert and "hurl King Lincoln from his throne." This demagoguery was typical of the anti-war elements within the United States which commonly referred to President Lincoln as an idiot, a tyrant or a tool of the abolitionists. President Lincoln's determination to move beyond the insults and vitriolic hatred was critical towards his ability to preserve the Union and the Constitution.
President Lincoln also understood that pre-War America was failing to preserve the Constitution through its treatment of blacks. Blacks both slave and free were treated as inferiors prior to the war. Blacks were denied the right to vote, hold political office, serve in the military, among other social inequalities.
President Lincoln understood that the country was not fulfilling the Preamble to the Constitution, the belief that the government was charged with securing "...the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." President Lincoln was forward thinking enough that he understood that the eradication of slavery would be the first step towards providing equal rights to blacks in the United States.
President Lincoln was however, realistic enough to understand that he could not outright eliminate slavery. President Lincoln would have to begin the journey towards slavery's demise gradually. He began in 1862 by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation (to take effect on January 1, 1863) would declare all slaves in Southern states engaged in rebellion against the Union, free. Although this Proclamation would not immediately free any slaves, the Proclamation changed the tone of the war. No longer was the war purely a war to subdue an insurrection, the war was now also a national crusade to free blacks held as slaves in the South. The Emancipation Proclamation also contained a key provision which allowed blacks to enlist in the Army and the Navy. This measure would lead to 200,000 blacks enlisting in the Union Army and Navy.
Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and prominent abolitionist, understood the importance of allowing blacks to join the military. Douglass saw military service as a first step for blacks to begin to gain respect and equal rights in the United States:
"You will stand more erect, walk more assured, feel more at ease, and be less able to insult than you ever were before. He who fights the battles of America may claim America as his country and have that claim to be respected."
Many historians criticize President Lincoln for his suspension of civil liberties during the Civil War. It is necessary to understand the situation which President Lincoln faced. During the Civil War, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and Delaware, were slave states which remained loyal to the Union. The populace of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were extremely divided over whether to support the Union or to join the Confederacy. If any of these states joined the Confederacy, it may have well tipped the balance of the war towards the Confederacy. The secession of Maryland would be especially destructive because Maryland's secession would have isolated Washington, D.C. from the rest of the Union. In order to maintain Union control over these states, President Lincoln suspended certain civil liberties such as the right to habeas corpus.
Under the Constitution, the President does have the right to revoke habeas corpus in cases of --rebellion or Invasion.... However, President Lincoln understood Alexander Hamilton's belief that the Constitution was not a "suicide pact." President Lincoln understood that for the good of the overall preservation of the Union, it would be necessary to suspend certain civil liberties.
President Lincoln understood that the Civil War was a national test. He understood that the Confederacy was a challenge to the idea of a unified national government embodied within our Constitution. He understood that the war must be fought to help free blacks oppressed by slavery and begin the road towards granting them full rights as American citizens. President Lincoln also understood that in order to achieve these goals of protecting the Constitution, it would be necessary to use certain extreme measures. Abraham Lincoln's dedication to these principles and his leadership in the defense of them makes President Lincoln arguably the greatest defender of our Constitution.
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