I'm surprised that no one has taken up Harold's suggestion to look at
the issues raised in Mark Neely's work on civil liberties in the Civil
War North and South, i.e. his book Southern Rights: Political Prisoners
and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism. It seems like a fair
question to compare Jefferson Davis's record on civil liberties with
Lincoln's. Neely, as Harold suggests, "reluctantly concludes that the
CSA had many more political prisoners than the USA held," and did all of
the things for which people on this list have excoriated Lincoln,
including suspending habeas corpus. The CSA's actions included
imprisoning members of German social organizations here in Richmond
based on a general sense that they posed a threat, and the maintainance
of overtly political prisons such as Castle Thunder. I don't find this
terribly surprising, given the exigencies of war that both Davis and
Lincoln faced, but it seems that a bit of a double standard is at play
here.
Gregg Kimball
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Basil Forest
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 9:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Long memories
Lincoln's list of Constitutional violations is extensive and
unprecedented in American history. It's not all that surprising in that
he never attended law school, much less graduated from one. He read
the law and almost exclusively dealt with Illinois practice and
procedure. His knowledge of the
Constitution was sorely lacking, but he apparently didn't care. I
guess if you
swear to uphold a document of which you are ignorant you can be excused
for your failures.
With regard to Jefferson, as Christ said to the Pharisees, "you
without sin cast the first stone."
I hope your message isn't attached to this so I don't violate the rules
of this forum. I don't see anything below here.
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