What powers did Lincoln abuse during the Civil War?
964664
He did not so much abuse presidential power as he expanded it. \n\nHe convinced Congress to suspend Habeus Corpus. \n\nNothing in the Constitution prior to the Civil War suggested that states could not secede, but Mr. Lincoln forged an amendment in blood over the issue.
1019052
1.  The most experiencd generals in the war were in the Confederate Army\n\n2. Soldiers were not experienced at using guns and riding horses\n\n3. Not all the soldiers spoke English.\n\n4. The north was not familiar with the land they were fighting in.\n\n5. The Union army had to use soldiers to fight against Indians, and to manage the southern cities they took over.\n\n6. Some northerners were against the war, and Lincoln even imprisoned some legislators in Maryland who would have voted against staying in the Union.
833788
When anyone forces another to anything against their will. any situation of power over. Abuse is abuse is abuse.
523732
President Lincoln was the greatest because he saved the Union. Most of the leaders did not have the courage to take the necessary action.
745029
The U.S. Civil War was the eventual impact of States Rights on the North and South.\n\nThe South claimed that slavery was a State rights issue, although the war was more about States rights than slavery.  The South seceded due to State rights.
260916
was it states rights...that is one in the books..thats not it i think it had alot to do with a power struggle.The north wanting to keep the south in its proper place. Which wud be wrong...i admit i missed something on the subject,i can find out.The north had a little known desire to not let the south persue an industial base, which was growing a  bit before the war broke out.Cotten was king n they knew it,with a strong industry the south could,and would i belief become dominant in the power sruggle.
58065
the habeas corpus thing wasn't so much about freeing slaves as it was about winning the war and preserving the union.  \n\nthe idea was that doing so was necessary to prevent those people who were calling for violent revolution and actively organizing armies against the country from continuing.  habeas corpus allows a prisoner to request a hearing before a judge in order to determine whether or not the prisoner is being held lawfully - given the number of arrests that were taking place at the time, such a thing was impossible and lincoln thought it necessary to crack down on dissent.\n\n(this was one of many acts of lincoln's that were outside of his constitutional authority, by the way, including calling up a militia, instituting martial law, authorizing without congressional approval greater spending for the army and navy, as well as certain acts of war.  however many people are largely in agreement that these actions were justified considering that the survival of the nation was at stake.)\n\nin some sense slavery was at issue in the war, and if the union lost the war, then southern slaves would have been stuck as slaves in what would have become the confederate states of america.  but really, to free the slaves of the united states all he did was issue a statement that declared them free.  of course, this was outside of his constitutional authority, too, but as they say, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.\n\nhttp://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=425\nhttp://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/hl834.cfm
466411
When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states -- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas -- and the threat of secession by four more -- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America. \n\nGo to this site. There is a map and everything :-)\nhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/civil_war.htm
284848
I don't have the time to list them for you, but here is a site that might help some...\n\n      http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567354/Civil_War.html#p53
66344
No. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had more power than Lincoln. It's true Lincoln had less of a country to work with than FDR, but an act of Congress gave FDR the most power of any president and he needed it. The great depression was a disaster for the US and someone had to step in. The US was attacked by a foreign power and people were in a panic about that. Put those two events together and you have a bigger set of problems than a mere Civil War...
1047767
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States.  He led the country during the Civil War and is generally given great credit for preserving the Union. He also signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the rebelling Confederacy, although this was more of a political manuever than anything else.  He was assassinated shortly after the end of the war by an angry Southerner.  \n\nYou can find more information at the link I've provided below.
410475
Lincoln was not an abolitionist at first, but when Uncle Tom's Cabin was released, he believed it was wrong. He wasn't just upholding the law because then, it was not illegal to have slaves. The 13th Amendment wasn't made until after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.
634837
During the Civil War.
138530
I think he had a goat he liked to have sex with. He had dogs, cats, some abolished slaves, and parakeets.  He had a number of farm animals when he lived in the country.\n\nMany Southern states made it clear that if Lincoln was elected, they would secede (leave the Union). The South was against Lincoln because he opposed slavery. South Carolina was the first to secede in December 1860. Six other Southern states followed: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. After Lincoln's inauguration, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina also left the Union. These states became known as the Confederacy. The secession of the Southern states led to the first shots of the Civil War when the Confederates seized Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. \n\nLincoln faced the greatest national crisis of any U.S. President. He hated war and the death and destruction it would bring. However, he accepted war as the only means of saving the Union. He warned the South in his Inaugural Address:\n\n"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." (Abraham Lincoln Web Site) \n\nAs the nation neared the third year of the bloody Civil War, President Lincoln issued the historic Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." \n\nThis proclamation actually freed few people. It did not apply to slaves in the Border States of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already under Union control. Naturally, the states that had seceded did not act on Lincoln's orders. But the proclamation showed Americans — and the world — that the war was being fought to end slavery. \n\nAlthough the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it changed the way black men were accepted during the war. Black men could join the Union Army and Navy. The liberated could become the liberators. By the end of the war, nearly 200,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the Union and freedom. \n\nOn November 19, 1863, President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The speech dedicated the battlefield to the soldiers who had died there. The battle site became a military cemetery. Lincoln stated in his moving speech: "...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." (The National Archives.)\n\nBush needs to learn from this guy although he already has goat. He should not give part of America to the arabs.
166040
President Lincoln was opposed to what he saw as the Slave Power and staunchly opposed its efforts to expand slavery into federal territories. His victory in the 1860 presidential election further polarized an already divided nation. Before his inauguration in March of 1861, seven Southern slave states seceded1 from the United States, formed the Confederate States of America, and took control of U.S. forts and other properties within their boundaries. These events soon led to the American Civil War.\n\nLincoln is often praised for his work as a wartime leader who proved adept at balancing competing considerations and at getting rival groups to work together toward a common goal. Lincoln had to negotiate between Radical and Moderate Republican leaders, who were often far apart on the issues, while attempting to win support from War Democrats and loyalists in the seceding states. He personally directed the war effort, which ultimately led the Union forces to victory over the Confederacy.\n\nHis leadership qualities were evident in his diplomatic handling of the border slave states at the beginning of the fighting, in his defeat of a congressional attempt to reorganize his cabinet in 1862, in his many speeches and writings which helped mobilize and inspire the North, and in his defusing of the peace issue in the 1864 presidential campaign. Copperheads vehemently criticized him for violating the Constitution, overstepping the bounds of executive power, refusing to compromise on slavery, declaring martial law, suspending habeas corpus, ordering the arrest of thousands of public officials and a number of newspaper publishers, and killing hundreds of thousands of young men. Radical Republicans criticized him for going too slow on abolition of slavery, and not being ruthless enough toward the conquered South.\n\nLincoln is most famous for his roles in preserving the Union and ending slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, some abolitionists criticized him for only freeing the slaves under the Confederacy in 1863, and waiting until 1865 to free slaves held in the Union.\n\nHistorians have argued that Lincoln had a lasting influence on U.S. political and social institutions, importantly setting a precedent for greater centralization of powers in the federal government and the weakening of the powers of the individual state governments.\n\nLincoln spent most of his attention on military matters and politics but with his strong support his administration established the current system of national banks with the National Bank Act. He increased the tariff to raise revenue and encourage factories, imposed the first income tax, issued hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds and Greenbacks, encouraged immigration from Europe, built the transcontinental railroad, set up Department of Agriculture, encouraged farm ownership with the Homestead Act of 1862, and set up the modern system of state universities with the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. During the war his Treasury department effectively controlled all cotton trade in the occupied South--the most dramatic incursion of federal controls on the economy. During his administration West Virginia and Nevada were admitted as states.\n\nLincoln is usually ranked as one of the greatest presidents. Because of his roles in destroying slavery, redefining national values, and saving the Union, his assassination made him a martyr to millions of Americans. However, millions of others considered him an unconstitutional tyrant for declaring martial law, suspending civil liberties, habeas corpus, and the First Amendment, and ordering the arrest of thousands of public officials and newspaper publishers.
614072
Absolutely they should, the "Great Emancipator" Abraham Lincoln, would be better called the "great wholesale violator of the Constitution". What history ignores (the winner gets to write history) is that the civil war was NOT about freeing slaves, or anyone else, it was about the south (the Confederate States of America) refusing to pay outrageous taxes imposed by the north to foot the bill for the north's expansion of their industrial base. The simple fact that Lincoln declared war on them laid the groundwork for our current system of "do what we tell you or else" federal government- and is leading to the total and utter destruction of any pretense that the USA is a free nation- we are at the doorstep to a police state that will make all the preceding police states look rather benign (and yes that includes the Soviet police state and Hitlers little picnic). Americans obviously have no clue what this nation is supposed to be, proving the efficacy of the "education system" in this country. This nation has ceased to exist as a true nation because no one seems to care about the supreme law of the land (the Constitution) as long as they have their TV shows, beer, and junk food. \n Yes, states have the right to secede- but don't count on any of them doing it, let alone getting away with it.
664627
My first thought was Nero, good choice. As for not listening to the facts, I'm really not sure what our conservative friends are referring to. People that refer to Abraham Lincoln "starting" the Civil War need to get their facts straight. Lincoln's goal in the Civil War was to keep the Union strong and together. The war was "started" by the Confederacy with the bombing of Fort Sumpter.