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. To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html