Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 22, 2021 at 10:23:56 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-CivWar]: Weber on Mackey, 'Opposing Lincoln: > Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over > Dissent in Wartime (Landmark Law Cases and American Society)' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Thomas C. Mackey. Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, > Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime > (Landmark Law Cases and American Society). Lawrence University > Press of Kansas, 2020. 200 pp. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-0-7006-3014-1. > > Reviewed by Jennifer Weber (United States Air Force Academy) > Published on H-CivWar (February, 2021) > Commissioned by G. David Schieffler > > Since Mark E. Neely Jr. wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, _The > Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties_ in 1991, a > small but growing group of historians has been engaged in a robust > discussion about the constitutionality of some of Lincoln's > decisions. Neely was not the first to raise the question--James G. > Randall wrote _Constitutional Problems under Lincoln_ in 1926, for > instance--but Neely sparked a sustained conversation that continues > even now. Thomas Mackey's _Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, > Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle over Dissent in Wartime_, > does not add much new to the discussion in terms of either evidence > or argument, but it does neatly synthesize the work in this subfield > field in the years since _The Fate of Liberty_ came out. > > Opposing Lincoln ostensibly places Ohio congressman Clement L. > Vallandigham at the heart of his story, though in fact, he becomes a > central figure only in the last two chapters. Vallandigham rose to > notoriety early in the Civil War as Lincoln's (possibly) most > outspoken opponent. Certainly he became the most public face of the > antiwar Democrats, aka Copperheads, as the war wore on. From shortly > after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter to the end of the war, > Lincoln made decisions that were constitutionally debatable and that > stirred fierce opposition among conservative Democrats: declaring a > blockade, raising troops with only after-the-fact congressional > approval, adopting a draft law, and, most controversially, issuing > the Emancipation Proclamation and suspending habeas corpus. By the > summer of 1862, the Copperheads' rallying cry was "the Union as it > was and the Constitution as it is." > > Vallandigham's role to this point was to serve mostly as a nuisance > for Lincoln, a pesky dog nipping at his heels. While the Copperheads > became increasingly difficult to ignore, especially as their call for > Midwestern secession gained traction, the congressman himself was > easy for the president to disregard. Until, that is, General Ambrose > Burnside had Vallandigham, by now out of office, arrested in April > 1863 for violating the general's order that banned acts which aided > the Confederacy. Among the actions that General Orders No. 38 listed > were two that appear aimed directly at the Copperheads: expressing > sympathy for the enemy or making statements that "expressed or > implied" treason (pp. 78-79). Within days Vallandigham challenged the > order in a speech in which he called Lincoln a tyrant, announced yet > again his opposition to the war, and blasted Burnside's order. > Burnside had his men arrest Vallandigham five days later and moved > Val from his hometown of Dayton to Cincinnati, where a military > commission heard the case. The general feared, with some reason, that > he could not find a reliably loyal jury in southern Ohio. After a > three-day trial, the officers making up the commission found > Vallandigham guilty of violating General Orders No. 38 and sentenced > him to spend the rest of the war in a military prison. > > Lincoln's efforts to manage the fallout from Vallandigham's > conviction and his justification for Vallandigham's arrest are the > subject of a detailed analysis that constitutes the fifth and final > chapter. Rather than have the former congressman sit in prison for > the duration, Lincoln ordered him banished to the Confederacy. Val > quickly left the South, passed through Bermuda, and went to Canada, > taking up residence directly across the river from Detroit. From > there, he mounted a campaign for Ohio governor in the fall of 1863, > but lost in spectacular fashion. While Vallandigham was busy with his > campaign, Lincoln used a letter of protest from Albany Democrats as > an opportunity to defend the suspension of habeas corpus. Although > suspending habeas corpus obviously was not constitutional in > peacetime, he wrote, the war met the constitutional allowance for > suspension "in cases of rebellion of Invasion." Although he suggested > that he may not have agreed with Burnside's actions, Lincoln pointed > out that Vallandigham "was laboring, with some effect, to prevent the > raising of troops, to encourage desertions from the army," and to > leave the country without sufficient military protection. Comparing a > "simple-minded soldier boy who deserts" to the "wily agitator" who > encouraged him to desert, Lincoln asked why he should be allowed to > punish only the soldier and not the civilian. Americans would not > "lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the > press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and Habeas corpus" > forever, he said--just for the term of the war (pp. 130-131). > > Lincoln's response in the widely circulated Corning letter and in > subsequent statements was his "clearest assessment of and defense of > presidential power in wartime," Mackey writes (p. 123). Vallandigham > snuck back into the United States in 1864, but Lincoln did nothing > more than tell his subordinates to keep an eye on the Ohioan. Val > ended the war a despised figure in much of the North. His arrest, > trial, and banishment, however, had resulted in a powerful argument > for presidential power during wartime that far outlived both him and > Lincoln. > > Mackey relays the legal and political confrontation between Lincoln > and Vallandigham in great detail. I would be reluctant to assign this > to undergraduates, one of Mackey's target audiences, because the > detail is almost overwhelming, especially for an audience that has > only a minimal understanding of Civil War-era politics or the > constitutional stakes at issue. The book would be very useful for > graduate students--the second target audience--and their professors > if Mackey had used footnotes. For inexplicable reasons, however, > there are no citations in this volume, and only a thinly sketched > bibliographical essay. These unfortunate decisions minimize the > book's value to scholars. The book's greatest value is for scholars > who are interested in questions about Lincoln and the wartime powers, > but who need a good briefing on the topic before delving into other > works. > > Citation: Jennifer Weber. Review of Mackey, Thomas C., _Opposing > Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal > Battle over Dissent in Wartime (Landmark Law Cases and American > Society)_. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55872 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6620): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6620 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80828878/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
