...associated with such passivity and stated it this way in his Special Session Message on July 4, 1861: "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for...people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" In another formulation, Lincoln queried: "Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the Government...

...Constitutional (Dictatorship Constitutional Dictatorship Is there in all republics this inherent and fatal weakness? Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" The man who posed that question was Abraham Lincoln....

...He wrestled with this concept of government in his July 4, 1861, message to Congress when he wrote, "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its existence?" Tltird, to what political party did Lincoln belong?...

...practically put an end to free government upon the earth." He phrased the critical question as this: "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for...people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" So, too, the question was whether the rule of law could maintain its grip on even the most violent social...

...individual liberties by suspending habeas corpus and instituting military trials. Lincoln himself had asked, "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for...people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" It was not irrational to fear that those liberties might also be casualties of war.4 The constitutional...

...to free government upon the earth . . . So viewing the issue, no choice was left [to the president] but to call out the war power of the Government; and...force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.27 But Frederick Grimke and George Ticknor Curtis were probably closer to the mainstream...

...power which Congress could not do in the way of ordinary legislation." The firing on Sumter meant that "no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government," and Lincoln included under the rubric of "war power" the authorization "to suspend the privilege of the...

...framing the issue: "Immediate dissolution fof the Union] or blood." "So viewing the issue," he went on, "no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government." Far more than any predecessor, he found presidential authority in the war power; "It was with the deepest...

...free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: 'Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of necessity,...people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?'" The argument of secessionists from Calhoun on—that states had a constitutional right to leave the...

...free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness?" "Must a government, of necessity,...of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"21 Can government maintain or grant such liberty to the individual as to fulfill its promise...