Abraham Lincoln’s Early Civil War Actions

Many of the article’s core factual claims about Lincoln’s early Civil War actions are accurate or substantially supported by the historical record. The piece (by Thomas DiLorenzo, defending his book The Real Lincoln) catalogs executive actions that expanded federal power, restricted civil liberties, and bypassed or strained constitutional processes. These are documented in primary sources, contemporary court opinions, congressional records, and works by historians across the spectrum (including James G. Randall’s Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln, Mark Neely’s The Fate of Liberty, and others). Interpretation of motives, necessity, or long-term consequences remains contested; the facts of the actions themselves largely hold.

Focus is on actions leading up to and at the beginning of the war (secession crisis through roughly 1861–early 1862, with some continuity into later years where the article specifies). Later total-war practices (Sherman/Sheridan) and economic agenda points are noted more briefly.

Suspension of Habeas Corpus and Related Detentions

Lincoln unilaterally suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus starting April 27, 1861 (initially along the Philadelphia–Washington corridor to secure the capital after Baltimore riots and troop movements), later expanding it. Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting on circuit in Ex parte Merryman (May 1861), ruled that only Congress held this power under Article I, Section 9, and that the President lacked authority to suspend it or authorize military arrests of civilians outside judicial process. Lincoln ignored the ruling; the military refused to produce John Merryman. Congress later provided retroactive authorization in the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of March 1863.

Thousands of Northern civilians were detained without warrant or prompt trial as “prisoners of state.” Conservative estimates place the total at roughly 13,000–14,000+ over the war (lowest systematic counts from War Department and related records start around 13,535 from February 1862 onward, plus hundreds earlier under State Department control). Many were held in facilities such as Fort Lafayette (New York Harbor), which contemporary critics and some detainees explicitly called the “American Bastille.” Detainees included suspected secessionists, draft resisters, and critics; records show a mix of security cases and broader political ones. Secretary of State Seward oversaw early arrests and was associated with expansive claims of authority.

Military Measures Without Prior Congressional Declaration or Full Authorization

After Fort Sumter (April 12–13, 1861), Lincoln (with Congress out of session) called for 75,000 militia on April 15 under the Militia Act of 1795 to suppress “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings,” ordered the repossession of federal property, and convened Congress for July 4. He also expanded the regular army and navy and issued the blockade proclamation (April 19, extended April 27) of Southern ports without a formal declaration of war. The Supreme Court upheld the blockade’s legality in The Prize Cases (1863), treating the conflict as a de facto civil war/insurrection that the President could meet with force as Commander-in-Chief; Congress later ratified the early measures. No formal congressional declaration of war against the Confederacy occurred (consistent with treating it as internal rebellion rather than foreign war).

These steps initiated large-scale military operations before Congress could act comprehensively.

Press Controls, Censorship, and Suppression of Dissent

Federal and military authorities shut down or interfered with numerous opposition (mostly Democratic) newspapers—estimates exceed 300 suppressions or intimidations of various kinds over the war, concentrated early on. Methods included denying mail privileges (critical given how papers circulated), seizing presses, and arresting editors/proprietors. Lincoln personally ordered the temporary shutdown and arrests related to the New York World and Journal of Commerce in 1864 over a forged proclamation, but broader actions by subordinates (and Post Office/War Department measures) occurred throughout. Telegraph communication was censored for military security. These steps restricted criticism of administration policies.

Clement L. Vallandigham (former Ohio congressman and leading Peace Democrat/Copperhead) was arrested in May 1863 by military authorities under General Burnside’s orders for a speech criticizing the war and administration, tried by military commission, and sentenced. Lincoln commuted the sentence to banishment behind Confederate lines. This is a clear, documented case of deporting a political opponent.

State Creation and Other Structural Actions

West Virginia’s formation (admitted 1863) involved the “Restored Government of Virginia” (Unionist remnant at Wheeling) consenting to the separation of western counties. Lincoln signed the enabling legislation after polling a divided cabinet; Attorney General Edward Bates viewed the process as unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution (Article IV) requires the consent of the legislature of the affected state for forming a new state from its territory; the legitimacy of the Wheeling body as the Virginia legislature was disputed. Kansas and Nevada admissions followed more conventional territorial paths (Kansas statehood 1861; Nevada 1864), though wartime conditions applied.

Nationalization or heavy federal direction of railroads occurred for military logistics. Confiscation of property (under Confiscation Acts) and other measures expanded federal reach. Claims of systematic Second Amendment violations or wholesale “evisceration” of the Ninth/Tenth Amendments are more interpretive; specific firearm seizures occurred in some military contexts, and federal power clearly grew relative to states.

Total War Elements and Economic Framing (Later but Referenced)

Lincoln endorsed hard-war policies, including destruction of resources supporting the Confederate war effort. Sherman’s and Sheridan’s campaigns (Georgia, Shenandoah) involved widespread property destruction affecting civilians after Confederate armies withdrew; contemporary statements and post-war accounts document the scale. The Anaconda Plan (blockade + control of rivers) aimed at economic strangulation. These developed after the initial phase but followed from the early commitment to force. Lincoln’s pre-war Whig economic views (tariffs, internal improvements, national banking) informed wartime legislation (e.g., Morrill Tariff, National Banking Acts), which advanced a more centralized, protectionist framework once Southern opposition was removed.

Overall Assessment

• Accurate or well-supported: Unilateral habeas suspension and defiance of Taney; large-scale warrantless civilian detentions (order of ~13,000+); blockade without formal war declaration; call-up of forces and military initiation before full congressional deliberation; newspaper suppressions and editor arrests; Vallandigham’s military trial and deportation; Fort Lafayette’s use and “Bastille” nickname; constitutional irregularities around West Virginia; endorsement of hard-war tactics that hit civilian economies.
• Contextual notes: Many actions occurred while Congress was out of session or under genuine emergency conditions (capital isolation, early military setbacks, secession). Congress later ratified key steps. Necessity versus overreach, and whether the original Union was purely “voluntary” in the compact sense, are interpretive questions the article treats as settled against Lincoln. Numbers of arrests and exact motives for each detention involve incomplete records and scholarly debate (Neely emphasizes military/security cases more than pure partisanship; earlier critics emphasized the latter).
• Less precise or broader claims: Exact counts of “dozens” of editors, every instance of press destruction, or blanket “nationalization” language can be refined by primary tallies. Economic motives as the primary driver of the war are DiLorenzo’s thesis rather than consensus fact. Execution of a New Orleans man solely for lowering a flag and mass imprisonment of ministers for prayer omissions appear in period accounts of occupation policies but require case-by-case verification for scale.

Primary sources (Lincoln’s proclamations and messages to Congress, Taney’s Merryman opinion, the Prize Cases decision, congressional acts, and prison/arrest registers) confirm the sequence and substance of the actions listed.