Wartime expedients were imposed during the Civil War that abridged the rights of U. S. citizens. The United States, a federal republic with closely prescribed civil liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights, faced an unprecedented challenge to its continued existence when the war erupted in April 1861. The U. S. Constitution contained provisions that enabled the national government to expand temporarily its power to protect the national government’s viability under extreme circumstances. Article I, Section 8, includes a “necessary and proper clause,” and Section 9, paragraph 2, 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.” President Abraham Lincoln’s administration soon found it necessary to claim those powers. Compelled by military necessity to keep border states such as Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union fold, Lincoln took bold and immediate action to forestall any political drift toward the Confederacy.
The first and most decisive step was the suspension of writs of habeas corpus, a constitutional protection against arbitrary arrest and detention without trial. This was undertaken in the very first weeks of the conflict, as Washington, D. C., the seat of government, was surrounded by Confederate Virginia to the south and a very unstable, Southern-leaning Maryland to the north. Consequently, several outspoken secessionists, such as Baltimore mayor John Merryman, were detained without warrants until military reinforcements arrived to maintain Union authority in the state. Supreme Court justice Roger Taney opposed Lincoln’s action, ruling in Ex parte Merryman that the chief executive lacked any constitutional authority to suspend writs. But Lincoln, backed by military authority as per his constitutional role as commander in chief, simply ignored the ruling and quietly rounded up and detained known and suspected secessionists. The pace of arrests slackened greatly as months went by: The threat of arbitrary detainment, substantiated by the experience of Merryman and others, had curbed Confederate sympathizers in Maryland and other critical areas. In this respect, the suspension of
Civil liberties played a vital role in preserving the national government and its ability to wage war.
Outrage over perceived suppression of civil liberties continued, next concerning conscription, which violated deeply held beliefs in the right of male citizens to volunteer, rather than be compelled, to offer their services. Battlefield casualties had diminished enthusiasm for volunteers by the end of summer 1862, and the U. S. government passed the second draft law in American history (the first passed by the Confederates in spring 1862). In both the North and the South, the acts were condemned but never seriously challenged by the courts or Congress. Lincoln’s opponents condemned his draft measures as yet another example of tyranny. The president’s response was typically swift and decisive: He again suspended writs of habeas corpus. This time, however, he applied the policy across the entire North, not simply in the border states. Moreover, it targeted not just dissenting politicians but also newspaper editors. Federal authorities shut down many publications critical of the administration, such as the New York World and Philadelphia Evening Journal, in quick succession. Other newspapers, such as the German-language National Zeitung, were denied mailing privileges. Thousands of dissenters and agitators throughout the North were likewise arrested, detained, and subject to military tribunals. Physical abuse of detainees was not uncommon, and administration officials certainly knew of it, but Lincoln never issued an executive directive to mitigate mistreatment. The most visible target of Lincoln’s political crackdown was former congressman Clement L. Vallandigham, a “Peace Democrat,” or “Copperhead,” from Ohio who denounced administration tactics in several antiwar speeches. He was arrested by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and deported to Confederate territory. Such actions stirred another chorus of condemnation, but this time it included several of Lincoln’s former political allies, such as editor Horace Greeley. By 1864 the Lincoln administration pulled back on arrests, although it still used military courts for its purposes. In 1866 the U. S. Supreme Court declared military tribunals unconstitutional in regions where civil law and courts were viable, a significant finding although the tribunals continued operating full tilt during Reconstruction. The Court further declared that habeas corpus and civil courts were immune from suspension by martial law and that imposition of martial law itself was applicable solely to areas of armed conflict. Prewar civil liberties had thus been reaffirmed at the highest levels.
See also civil liberties, Coneederate; Congress, United States; secession.
Further reading: Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); James F. Simon, Lincoln and Chief
Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Jennifer L. Weber, Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
—John C. Fredriksen
World History
