Executive Powers Of Abraham Lincoln During The Civil War

Abraham Lincoln may have claimed that he had to violate the Constitution to protect it, but whether he actually did violate constitutional law is debatable. It may be more concise to say that this statement by Lincoln more clearly demonstrates the morale dilemma that he faced in enacting Executive Powers to save the Union and that his actions merely stretched the power of the Executive Branch to their limit in that day and age. There are two major instances during the Civil War that demonstrate Lincoln's liberal use of the powers vested in him by the Constitution.
Lincoln selectively suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland in 1861 (Corbett et al., 434). Habeus corpus, a common law adopted by the founding fathers when writing the Constitution, ensures due process of the law for prisoners. This effectively allowed military commanders to apprehend Confederate sympathizers who were likely to impede

The Proclamation of Emancipation stated that "all persons held as slaves" were to be freed in the Confederate states (436). Again, Lincoln relied on his powers as Commander-in-Chief, dictating that the slaves that were to be released only resided in states that were in open rebellion, namely the south, making it a military concern (436). He ignored the Union states and territories, knowing that the Supreme Court would rule it unconstitutional if the states were to sue for recourse, and knowing that the Confederacy could not take the issue to the Supreme Court because they were in open rebellion (436). Once the Civil War was finished, any suit against the Proclamation of Emancipation was made moot by the addition of the Thirteenth Amendment, which categorically and unequivocally forbid slavery. It was a very calculated order that changed the focus of the Civil War and impacted the future of the United