Impeach Lincoln

[Gettmore]

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Do you have a link so we can read the entire article?

 

[jackt62]

Interesting take on Lincoln. If anything, I would have thought that grounds for impeaching Lincoln would be more likely for his suspension of the writ of habeous corpus.

 

[Ethan S.]

The urge to use "fake news" jokes is coming, but 'll refrain.

I never knew that was even an option, impeaching Lincoln.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

I wonder if this clipping is referring to the New York Herald. James Gordon Bennett Sr., the founder, editor and publisher wasn't a fan of Lincoln.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

The urge to use "fake news" jokes is coming, but 'll refrain.

I never knew that was even an option, impeaching Lincoln.

Impeachment was there from the beginning, in the Constitution... Andrew Johnson was of course the first sitting president to be impeached... but if it was mooted about Lincoln, I wonder how many times it came up as a possibility in the fifteen earlier presidential administrations? Surely not Washington's... any early-19th-Century presidential-history buffs know if it was ever seriously discussed for any president prior to Johnson?

 

[jackt62]

Not sure if impeachment was seriously on the table before Johnson, although Andrew Jackson was censured by Congress in 1834 for withholding documents pertaining to Jackson's defunding of the Bank of the United States. The censure was however, later expunged by his Congressional supporters.

 

[Gettmore]

This was just a snippet in the Rome, Georgia paper. Nothing else to the story or article...

 

[Carronade]

The Constitution allows impeachment for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors", not for failure to achieve even an objective as important as victory in war. Lincoln could only be impeached if the failure to crush the rebellion was attributed to treason.

Of course it's not impossible that groups like the Committee on the Conduct of the War would take such a radical position.

 

[unionblue]

I believe it was Lincoln's own Postmaster General who once said in a cabinet meeting that if he did nothing about secession and Ft. Sumter he would be impeached (or not last 6 months as President).

 

[John Winn]

I think Lincoln could have been impeached for a number of things (e.g. suspending habeas corpus in states not in rebellion, shutting down newspapers, property confiscation) but there wasn't much interest in impeachment or challenging the constitutionality of Lincoln's previously-unused 'new' powers. The country had enough on its hands without going after the president. In fact, though, several things Lincoln did were determined after the war to be unconstitutional (i.e. property confiscation and requiring people to pay taxes in person).

 

[jackt62]

I think Lincoln could have been impeached for a number of things (e.g. suspending habeas corpus in states not in rebellion, shutting down newspapers, property confiscation) but there wasn't much interest in impeachment or challenging the constitutionality of Lincoln's previously-unused 'new' powers. The country had enough on its hands without going after the president. In fact, though, several things Lincoln did were determined after the war to be unconstitutional (i.e. property confiscation and requiring people to pay taxes in person).

In regard to all those acts that would probably not pass Constitutional muster, Lincoln said something to the effect that it was more important for him to use all tools at his disposal to preserve the Union than it was to abide by strict adherence to Constitutional norms. Specifically, it was "better for the patient to lose an arm rather than his life."

 

[John Winn]

In regard to all those acts that would probably not pass Constitutional muster, Lincoln said something to the effect that it was more important for him to use all tools at his disposal to preserve the Union than it was to abide by strict adherence to Constitutional norms. Specifically, it was "better for the patient to lose an arm rather than his life."

I do understand Lincoln's difficult position and also know that a lot of what he did had no precedents so it wasn't real clear exactly what a president could do in wartime. On the other hand, as a somewhat strict constitutionalist, I don't like to think the protections against tyranny afforded by the constitution are only going to be there when it's not inconvenient for the government. I suppose it's one of those 'is it better to catch all the offenders but also punish some innocent people than it is to avoid punishing all the innocent people but let some offenders off the hook' dilemmas.

By today's standards a lot of what happened during and after the war wouldn't have happened. I often wonder how Lincoln would be remembered if he hadn't been assassinated.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

By today's standards a lot of what happened during and after the war wouldn't have happened. I often wonder how Lincoln would be remembered if he hadn't been assassinated.

There's a hole with no bottom. Everyone will read their own interpretation of Lincoln right into it...

 

[unionblue]

There's a hole with no bottom. Everyone will read their own interpretation of Lincoln right into it...

Indeed, as the following website will attest:

Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present.

Loathing Lincoln | An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present

loathinglincoln.com

Just one example of others "own interpretation of Lincoln."

Unionblue

 

[dsweet43035]

Info on the New York Herald : https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/when-lincolns-state-of-the-union-leaked/384636/

 

[John Winn]

There's a hole with no bottom. Everyone will read their own interpretation of Lincoln right into it...

Sorry - it's just a thought I've had frequently when reading about Lincoln, how he was seen during the war, and how he is remembered now. I've also often wondered how reconstruction would have gone had Lincoln been president and that might have affected his legacy. I just can't help myself.

For the record, I don't loathe Lincoln (far from it) but don't regard him as a saint either (I don't see any president as a saint). War and politics are dirty business.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Info on the New York Herald : https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/when-lincolns-state-of-the-union-leaked/384636/

Thanks for the link. I had not heard of this story before.