"The Constitution is not a Suicide Pact."

 

Sean Linnane That's right! Ol' Honest Abe the Railsplitter - cherished and honored in the North as the wisest and most honest President - is notorious in the South where he is regarded as a military dictator. And by any modern political definition, there is a legitimate argument for this. Consider: Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus - a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, or the legal right to apply for such a writ. Of course, Abraham Lincoln led the country as it prosecuted a war against the populations of States whose crime was the (arguable) right to secede. I say arguable, because at the time the Constitution did not address whether or not a State had the right to decide for itself if it chose to remain within the Union. There is some rationale for why in the South the Civil War is known as "The War of Northern Aggression".

 

Jump over for an awsome read as always.