Background of news –
How Lincoln conducted a war
By Bertram Benedict, editorial research reports
As the leader of the United States in a long, bitter, and difficult war, Abraham Lincoln revealed two characteristics which on the surface seemed contradictory, yet really were complementary. On the one hand, he compromised and temporized with opposition, often surrendering to it when it proved too strong for him. On the other hand, when he considered certain steps necessary to win the war, he took them of his own volition, without legislative or constitutional sanction, until he was roundly abused as a dictator.
Lincoln was even ready to evacuate Fort Sumter, if that would deter Virginia from seceding. He is reported to have observed:
A state for a fort is no bad business.
At the outbreak of war, he delayed for several months summoning Congress into special session to act on the secession. Lincoln called for volunteers, proclaimed a blockade of the South, enlarged the Navy, expanded the Army beyond the limits set by law, ordered money spent for which Congress had not voted appropriations – all before Congress recognized “a state of insurrection.”
As to Lincoln’s suspension of the habeas corpus privilege, opinions still differ as to whether the Constitution gave him or Congress that power. At all events, Congress ultimately passed legislation which in effect ratified the extra-constitutional action the President had taken, so in this respect he could not be said to have flown in the face of Congressional sentiment.
He put up with Cabinet feuds
On many occasions the anti-Lincoln group of radical abolitionists and anti-appeasers of the South held a majority in Congress. Cabinet members squabbled among themselves; Lincoln kept them together for the sake of political unity. He even held on to Secretary of the Treasury Chase, although Chase was manifestly angling to defeat the President for the Republican presidential nomination in 1864.
Lincoln yielded to Congress when that body set up a Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War which sadly interfered with the presidential and military direction of belligerent activities. Lincoln treated the committee with consideration, yet prevented it from actually taking the general conduct of the war out of his hands.
Professor James G. Randall, in the Dictionary of American Biography, notes that Lincoln took his defeat philosophically when Congress passed over his opposition the West Virginia bill and the Second Confiscation Act.
Lincoln had neither legislative nor constitutional authority for the Emancipation Proclamation, unless that be deemed strictly a military move to help win the war. The Proclamation did not affect slaves in the slave-holding states supporting the Union, nor in Union-held Tennessee and sections of Virginia and Louisiana.
Harsh hand with newspapers
It is true that Congress had enacted a measure to free slaves who came within the Union lines, who joined the Union armies, or who were “rebel-owned.” However, this legislation was not cited by the Emancipation Proclamation, which cites for authority merely an earlier presidential proclamation in the light of a warning. Earlier Lincoln had asked Congress in vain to provide compensation to slaveowners.
When, in May 1864, The New York World and Journal of Commerce each printed a proclamation which they mistakenly ascribed to Lincoln, he ordered the “editors, proprietors, and publishers” arrested and brought to military trial. Furthermore, despite the First Amendment, Lincoln directed the Army to occupy the newspaper premises and prevent further publication until he gave the word.
The midterm election of 1862 increased the strength of the anti-Lincoln Republicans in Congress. Until military victories came along in the late summer of 1864, Lincoln’s reelection seemed doubtful. As it was, with only the Union states voting, the Democratic candidate, Gen. McClellan, received 45% of the total popular vote – 48% in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and 49% in New York.
