Lincoln Reshapes The Presidency
ed. by Charles M. Hubbard, Mercer Univ. Press, Macon, GA.
And that's the problem. Think about that title. One man by fiat changed the whole role and power of that office. HE decided. HE waged war. HE ruled. Congress had little or no say in all that Lincoln did. It's no wonder that Southerners saw him as a dictator. Some chapter (essay) titles in this book:
A. L. and the Changing Role of Commander in Chief, Word of Honor: A. L. and the Parole System in the Civil War, Serving A. L: The Public Career of John G. Nicolay, Lincoln Spins The Press, Lincoln and the Greeley Letter, Lincoln's Pardons and What They Mean, America's First Black President? Lincoln's Legacy of Political Transcendence, A King's Cure, a King's Style: Lincoln, Leadership, and the Thirteenth Amendment, Reshaping the Marriage: Mary Lincoln and Post--Assassination Memory.
Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney
James F. Simon, Simon & Schuster, 2006.
The two battled repeatedly over issues of slavery, secession, and Presidential war powers. Here we see the classic (of all times) clash between liberal and conservative. Lincoln was the liberal, while Taney had the conservative mind. Taney stuck to STRICT interpretation and application of the Constitution AS WRITTEN while Lincoln undoubtably must have seen it as the "living breathing document" that today's liberals speak of. When he saw something that he was sure needed to be or ought to be, Lincoln would simply DEEM it into existence much as liberals do today. Yes, Taney was on the wrong side of the slavery issue, having ruled in the Dred Scott case, but the real answer to clashes like this is not to start DEEMING, but rather to somehow alter our system to allow the Constitution to be much more easily ammendable as new questions and technologies arise. The South saw this locked-up ammendment staightjacket and, so, put extra paths for ammendment in their Constitution. For example, any State legislature could introduce an ammendment for all States to vote on. Taney saw that The Constitution DID allow for any State to secede, and he believed that Lincoln had no power to wage war on any State especially without a declaration of war by Congress. Lincoln and his radical Republicans got around this by -- yes again as libs do today -- redefining terms. It was not a WAR, but rather a repression of rebellion. He always referred to The War as The War of The Rebellion (notice "War" of . . .).