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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (13043)	10/13/2006 3:34:14 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 71588

those states had the right to leave.

To: RMF who wrote (13043)	10/13/2006 3:43:27 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 71588

Having depleted the Maryland legislature, Lincoln moved to refill it with reliable Unionists. He stationed thousands of federal troops in the state and used them to crush dissent. As the historian Charles Adams writes in his book When in the Course of Human Events (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000): “In November there was an election, and to make sure only Union people were elected, all members of the Federal armed forces voted, even though they were not residents of the state. At the voting booths, other voters had to pass through platoons of Union soldiers who had bayonets affixed to their rifles.” Southern sympathizers attempting to vote were arrested. By such means Lincoln got the legislature he wanted. “Democratic government ceased in Maryland for the duration of the war,” Adams notes. So much for “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” which, you’ll recall, would “perish from the earth” if the Union lost. Lincoln’s devotion to his avowed principles may be measured by such practices, which showed the cynicism behind his gorgeous rhetoric. The legend of Lincoln’s humanitarianism and love of freedom will not withstand an examination of his brutal wartime tactics, which shocked civilized Europe. The cruelty of the Union armies as they invaded the South is well known. What is less well known is how the Union terrorized itself. Across the North Lincoln authorized tens of thousands of arbitrary arrests and shut down hundreds of newspapers for criticizing his war. His military governors sometimes ordered hangings, without trial, for minor offenses. Mere suspicion of disloyalty — very broadly defined — was enough to expose the individual to danger from his own government. It was a genuine reign of terror, an era of government by hysteria. The Constitution was effectively suspended.