Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
In the "Favorite Civil War Quotes" thread on the Campfire Chat board, Thea made a comment that I found intriguing. I wanted to ask some questions, but thought it might be more appropriate to post them here, rather than in the Quotes thread.
What Thea said, or at least what I understood her to say, was that Lincoln delayed calling Congress for almost three months after being inaugurated.
I'm not a Constitutional scholar, but I was under the impression that either the Constitution or established laws and customs determine the day on which Congress will convene, and the President has nothing to do with it. At least, that seems to be the case nowadays.
Maybe I can learn something here.
Was there a time when the President had the sole power to set the day on which Congress would convene? If so, were there any restrictions on how long he could wait before convening Congress? Could Lincoln, conceivably, have kept Congress out of session for a full two years (or even four years) if that had been his desire? And if it is true that the President once had that power, when (if ever) was that power taken away?
A Special Session of Congress may be convened after that Congress has already adjourned sine die.
The Constitution gives the president the authority to recall Congress for special sessions.
Since the first Congress, 27 special sessions have been held. The last was called by Pres. Truman in 1948.
Article. II.
Section. 3.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
So, it really only applies to a special session. Yet in theory he could keep them waiting til Dec at any rate. The deal with Lincoln is he first called for it April 15th I think?? Yet then he refused to hold it until after he had strong armed his opposition. Maryland, Kentucky, Deleware, Missouri etc etc. In fact, I can't swear to it but I seem to recall that the time Lincoln called for special session and actually doing it was the longest of all those called. I seem remember there were complaints in newspapers that congress was almost under house arrest waiting. Yet I confess when i looked for it I can't find it. So if anyone knows I'd appriciate it if they would share it with me......
Upon re-reading Section 3, I just noticed that he also has the power to adjorn congress if he so wishes. I wonder if that would apply only to the special session or to regular scheduled congress as well. If it applies to any congress in session, that would be a most extraordinary power.
I've been looking through these threads and came across this one so I will start looking for answers tonight, Tommy/George. At the time I made the statement I was only interested in the fact,in my opinion,that Lincoln held Congress at bay until he had things lined up to his satisfaction and war couldn't possibly be avoided.
This is entirely contrary to the questions here, but I ran across something interesting and rather than start an entire new thread, I'm just going to throw it out right here. It concerns Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address.
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
The author of the article appears to make the assertion that the authors of the Declaration of Independence intended only to establish 13 states independent from England, and that Abraham Lincoln, by referring in his Gettysburg Address to the United States as a nation, was doing something that none of the Declaration's authors had ever intended.
I am reminded of the words of Benjamin Franklin, who said to his fellow Continental Congress delegates, "Gentlemen, we must all hang together, or we shall surely all hang separately."
I have a feeling that Franklin, at least, thought he was working to create a nation.
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