l incoln’s s hadow 33
One other aspect of Lincoln’s wartime leadership rewards scrutiny.
Faced with a truly existential threat to the nation, he chose to act uni-
laterally in ways that forever altered the powers of his offi ce. In the fi rst
days of the war, he ordered measures he deemed essential to national
survival, admitting that some violated the letter of the Constitution. He
later extended curbs on civil liberties across the North, moves that
sparked sharp opposition. To his credit, he off ered forthright explana-
tions for his actions, and the number of arrests (outside of the Border
States) was small. But while Lincoln exercised emergency powers with
a fair degree of restraint, he opened the door for later presidents to
infl ate the claim of necessity with no eff ective check.
From One War to Another
Within weeks of his election in 1860, Abraham Lincoln confronted the
challenge of secession and the looming threat of civil war. South Caro-
lina seceded in December 1860, quickly followed by six other states in
the Deep South. Almost immediately they began to seize federal property,
including arsenals, while the outgoing Buchanan administration insisted
it could do nothing. Th e rebellious states met in Montgomery, Alabama,
in February 1861 to form a united confederacy. Most federal civil offi -
cials in the seceded states promptly switched allegiance to the Confed-
erate States of America. In a few places across the South, U.S. Army
posts and forts held out, most famously at Fort Sumter in Charleston
Harbor. Other southern states teetered on the brink of secession, waiting
to see how the incoming Lincoln administration responded while
warning against the use of force to suppress the rebellion. Northern cit-
izens watched anxiously, fearful of secession and war alike, distressed as
the economy sagged amid uncertainty and the loss of southern com-
merce. Lincoln tried to hold open options that might avoid violent
confl ict. He made several private off ers to trade withdrawal from Fort
Sumter for a promise from Virginia to disband a secession convention
without a vote. In his March 4, 1861, inaugural address, with its ref-
erence to the “mystic chords of memory” that bound all Americans, he
went so far as to off er to support a constitutional amendment that would
bar the national government from ever interfering with slavery where it
existed.