Papers in Illinois history and transactions . s largely accidental made the balloting of November, 1864,an apparent expression of approval. Lincoln, it must be remembered, was the first President elected bythe Ivepublican party after an existence of only a half-dozen , though gatliering up all the anti-slavery elements, includingthe radicals, had made the canvass of 1860 on a o-uarantee for the insti-tution of slavery where it already existed along with an aggressive plankfor the non-extension of slavery. In spite of this general guarantee andtlie repeated assurances of the Po
Papers in Illinois history and transactions . s largely accidental made the balloting of November, 1864,an apparent expression of approval. Lincoln, it must be remembered, was the first President elected bythe Ivepublican party after an existence of only a half-dozen , though gatliering up all the anti-slavery elements, includingthe radicals, had made the canvass of 1860 on a o-uarantee for the insti-tution of slavery where it already existed along with an aggressive plankfor the non-extension of slavery. In spite of this general guarantee andtlie repeated assurances of the Popublicans. tlie Soutli chose to regardthe l^epublican victory of 1860 as the beginning of au attack on slaveryall along the line. The Icsult was secession followed by civil war, whichbrought the new president face to face Avith a situation without pre-cedent iu American history. Inasmuch as the Republicans had chosento regard the southern throats as mere blniT and bravado, they werescarcely pivpared to meet the consequences of their ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 131 111 hand ling the civil war problems, Lincoln assumed certain pow-ers which made his role quite as significant as that of a dictator in thedays of Romes glory. Without legislative warrant and without preced-ent in American or even English history, he suspended the privilege ofthe writ of habeas corpus, one of the dearest of civil rights in the mindsof the American freeman. He gave at least indirect approval to mostarbitrary arrests by the direction of the secretaries of state and war.^He stands responsible/ says James Ford Ehodes, for the casting intoprison of citizens of the United States on orders as arbitrary as the Ut-tres-de-cachet of Louis XIV and more tyrannical than any used byGreat Britain in modern times.^ There was arbitrary interferencewith freedom of speech and of the press, even outside the zone of actualfighting. He issued an executive order or proclamation which purport-ed to strike the shackles from mi
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