The Crisis Paradigm: Lincoln, Bush and the Assault on Liberty

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar II
  In Paper Session: Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial: Enduring Legacy for America

Abstract

Faced with six states seceding from the union before his inauguration and the attack on Fort Sumter just a month after his inauguration, Abraham Lincoln, without first consulting Congress, on April 27, 1861 ordered his top commander General Scott, “to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.” This action established a precedent for suspension of American civil liberties by executive order in times of war or national peril. Some have argued that George W. Bush’s advisers drew upon Lincoln’s interpretation of war powers in the Constitution to conduct his war in Iraq. Relying chiefly on two addresses to Congress—Lincoln’s of July 4, 1861, and Bush’s State of the Union “axis of evil” address of January 29, 2002—this study compares and contrasts the ways in which the executive has used crisis to redefine or suspend civil liberties that are the traditional value of a free people.

Authors

• John Yearwood, Lamar University

• Mary Alice Baker, Lamar University