Fink: Lincoln’s remarkable fidelity to the Constitution

Abraham Lincoln’s role in ending slavery in America and preserving the Union through the tumult of the Civil War has rightfully earned him the nearly universal respect of American citizens. His fortitude during some of the darkest days an American leader has ever faced still inspires our patriotic efforts today.

That enormous effort dominates our understanding of Lincoln so much that it overshadows perhaps his most consistent hallmark as a statesman: an unwavering commitment to the Constitution.

Even if he would have served during times of relative peace, Lincoln’s reverence for the Constitution and the limits it imposed on his executive power would still distinguish his presidency. In the hellish circumstances of the Civil War, it enshrines him as preeminent.

In simultaneously endeavoring to preserve constitutional government and defeat a rebellion, Lincoln faced an unprecedented task. Critics accusing Lincoln of exceeding the authority conventionally exercised by presidents typically fail to appreciate both the careful attention he paid to constitutionally justifying his actions, and the ease with which he could have dispensed entirely the constitutional limits on his authority. Despite leading the nation through the bloodiest conflict it would ever endure and preserving a Union threatening to tear itself apart, Lincoln refused to move outside the bounds of constitutional government for more expedient political solutions.

From the very beginning of the war, Lincoln demonstrated his respect for American government’s separation of powers.

Following the attack on Fort Sumter in early April, Lincoln called for Congress to assemble on the Fourth of July. If he didn’t do this, Congress would not have met until the first Monday of December, meaning Lincoln could have engaged in unilateral decision-making for the majority of the year with no meaningful check on his power. He recognized the need for the people’s representatives to be involved in the governing process, despite an ongoing insurrection.

Lincoln’s adherence to the Constitution did not waver even when he was faced with the prospect of losing his office. He was adamant that elections, including for the presidency, proceed in 1864 despite the ongoing domestic conflict.

“This is due to the people both on principle, and under the constitution,” he maintained. “Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all.”

Even in his most creative application of his wartime powers, the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln carefully articulated his constitutional source of authority for doing so. The proclamation was a unilateral action which Lincoln himself acknowledged would have had “no constitutional or legal justification except as a military measure.”

His patience in waiting to satisfy his desire to free those enslaved in the South permanently was based on his close reading of the Constitution, which he thought only gave him the ability to free them because they were in an area of rebellion, where his wartime powers allowed him to “[restore] the constitutional relation between the United States.”

It was precisely because of the narrow legal authority that his Emancipation Proclamation would have had following the war that Lincoln pushed so hard for Congress to adopt the 13th Amendment. He knew that to finally settle the issue, the Constitution needed to become the permanent law freeing the slaves.

The one constitutional provision that Lincoln is most often accused of having violated, the writ of habeas corpus, of course also happens to be the one provision that the Constitution explicitly says may be suspended “when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” Lincoln exercised this power of suspension very sparingly, refusing even to arrest the Maryland Legislature despite knowing of their probable decision to arm their people against the U.S. government.

Lincoln admitted that the Constitution protects their “clearly legal right to assemble.” And when he did exercise the power of suspension, it was also in part to ensure that those detained in mass would not have to be convicted under law and face harsher punishments after the war for their crimes.

In reconciling constitutional government with the realities of the Civil War, Lincoln exercised the power given to him by the Constitution to maintain the Union and no more.

By refusing to ignore the nation’s paramount law, Lincoln demonstrated the brilliance of the American system of government.

He showed that even in the most dire circumstances, the Constitution is a reliable foundation for all American statesmanship, and thereby ensured that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from the earth.

State Rep. Andrew Fink, R-Adams Township, represents Michigan’s 35th House District.