Why Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus Part II
Part 2 of 3. Read Part 1 here.
Suspending the writ was a drastic measure; yet President Abraham Lincoln did it without the approval of Congress. Why? It needed to be done as soon as possible as it was a strategic political-military move. Once the Southern states seceded and declared themselves a sovereign nation, the Union had a big problem.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilian Confederate sympathizers lived in the north. Some were Northern politicians, businessmen, or storeowners. Others owned influential newspapers scattered throughout the northern states. Any one of these Confederate supporters could undermine Union efforts to quash the rebellion. Lincoln recognized the problem immediately.
“The rebellion thus began . . . in certain respects . . . on very unequal terms between the parties. The insurgents [Confederates] had been preparing for it more than thirty years, while the Government had taken no steps to resist them. The former had carefully considered all the means which could be turned to their account. It undoubtedly was a well pondered reliance with them that, in their own unrestricted efforts to destroy Union, Constitution, and law altogether, the Government would, in great degree, be restrained by the same Constitution and law from arresting their progress. Their sympathizers pervaded all departments of the government, and nearly all communities of the people.”[1]
Lincoln knew that the insurgents would attempt to protect themselves using habeas corpus.
“. . . under cover of “liberty of speech,” “liberty of the press,” and “habeas corpus,” they hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most efficient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand ways. They knew that in times such as they were inaugurating, by the Constitution itself, the “habeas corpus” might be suspended; but they also knew they had friends who would make a question as to who was to suspend it; meanwhile their spies and others might remain at large to help on their cause.”[2]
It was clear; one major key to quelling the confederate insurgency was to strategically suspend the writ of habeas corpus, immediately. The President didn’t wait for Congress – a can of worms that historians have wrestled with for decades; but we’re going to look at how and when the suspension was implemented.
[1] Henry Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Derby and Miller 1865), 388.
[2] Ibid.
That
That’s about the most shameless and inconsequential defense of the suppression of a constitutional right that I have ever seen.
At one of the Service Academies in the United States, an oft-stated expression, without sanction from official authority: “You rate what you get away with.”
President Lincoln “wrongly” suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, and won the war in the process. He got away with it.
Like it or not, his actions simply fell in the realm of the powers granted to the President in times of war, crisis, national emergency, etc. and he acted within the powers granted him…after he had bungled his way into the war. A good presidential historian could write a book about the period from November 22, 1963 to the present, when the assassination of JFK led to enormous changes concerning the Executive Branch. I maintain that the gigantic “security” measures taken to protect future Presidents – which, at times, have been switched off to suit the desires of the Swamp – have been corrupted into a suffocating blanket to smother, suppress and control the Chief Executive in case he gets any crazy ideas like making the country great again, closing a wide open border, reducing crime, improving education and, most sensitive of all, purging Congress and the unelected bureaucracy of corruption, waste, fraud and sloth. The big power holders in Washington want Presidents that are puppets – completely under their control at all times. If he’s a friendly puppet, they run amok with corruption (witness 2021-2015). If he’s an unfriendly puppet, they use every device possible, especially biased and/or corrupt judges, to cut his strings and ensure he’s just a figurehead sitting in a fancy office, bereft of any power (witness 1968-1974; 2017-2021, 2025-present day). Americans who don’t perform too much investigation have been conditioned to believe that a President simply fulfilling his job description, exercising his clearly granted powers, and obeying the Constitution is somehow “out of control.” Yeah – he’s out of control of the most corrupt people this country has ever suffered. Hopefully we are on a path of a new birth of freedom in which the Federal government can be made to function much more efficiently and honestly, Americans get their God-given rights returned, and the corruption of the Swamp becomes no worse than bedtime scary stories that grandparents tell their grandchildren to horrify them.
?
From an unbroken epidermis layer of research it doesn’t appear that Russia or China have a writ of habeas corpus. I’ve been impressed over the years how the comments here have stayed on point so well. I myself digress unwillpoweredly, maybe a president can use security measures, for example, to have extra marital relations with an intern, oops, I digress. I don’t know if it was said in 1861 or 1862 about habeas corpus, but these days I am reminded of the words of German Martin Niemoller, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The Constitution, Art. 1, Section 9 states “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.”
The CSA Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 9(3) states: “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.”
The Writ was suspended by both sides on multiple occasions. That was probably unavoidable in the context of a civil war. On March 1, 1862 Davis put Richmond under martial law. And in May 1862 the Governor of South Carolina placed Charleston under martial law.
Objections to suspension of the Writ are a legitimate subject of debate – so long as they are applied with equal fervor to both governments.