During the Civil War, President Lincoln took swift, decisive action to preserve the Union and the public safety. Some believe he acted outside of his Constitutional power. His controversial actions included the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Do you think his action was just right for the times, or did President Lincoln go a bit too far?
I do believe that Lincoln over stepped his constitutional power, but I find it difficult to fault him with that when analyzing the overall situation.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard line to draw, for sure. This was one of the topics I had to address along with my teammates in a competition early this year. After spending countless hours scouring the Constitution, court cases, Federalist papers, and a few other sources, the four of us finally agreed that Lincoln's expanded use of power was just right. But just one or two court cases could have sent us questioning our thesis again.
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