l incoln’s s hadow 79
habeas corpus across the nation in 1862 on the thin pretext that the
entire country was a war zone, the Court never ruled on his action.
Th e cooperation of or submission by other governing institutions left
only the press and opposition parties as organized vehicles that might
force the president to answer for his claim of extraordinary wartime
authority. They performed this function effectively. By calling out
Lincoln for stepping beyond the established limits of his offi ce, his
political foes and press critics (including some Republican editors) pres-
sured him to explain himself to the American people. But their expe-
rience, which included charges of disloyalty and varying levels of
harassment and persecution, demonstrates that questioning executive
emergency powers during a war carries a serious penalty.
Reconsidering the Lincoln Legacy
On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural
Address, perhaps the most haunting speech ever given by a president of
the United States. Although victory was in sight (Lee would surrender
at Appomattox less than six weeks later), his words contain no hint of
triumphalism. Th e war’s cost instead weighed heavily on Lincoln. Some
600,000 soldiers had perished on both sides, an unknown number of
civilians had died, and hundreds of thousands had fl ed or been driven
from their homes. If most of the destruction had occurred in the South,
he took no satisfaction from that fact, for he had always regarded the
people there as his own countrymen. Th e president had never shielded
himself from the suff ering, either, frequently visiting wounded troops
and reading many letters from those who had lost loved ones. Lincoln
used the occasion to express the deeper meaning of the war. He saw in
it a divine judgment about the price Americans had to pay for toler-
ating slavery in their midst. Before reaching that point, he recounted
the origins of the conflict, speaking in broad terms of how “both
parties,” North and South, were too committed to their ideals to avoid
war. “And the war came.” It is an oddly passive phrase because, by
implying that impersonal forces drove events toward an outcome no
one preferred, it brushed past another truth: Lincoln’s own decisions
brought on the confl ict. For a president, there is always choice, and
with it responsibility.