Suzie
09-28-2002, 10:17 AM
Civil Liberty in Wartime
Remarks of Supreme Court Chief Justice William A. Rehnquist
Director's Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
November 17, 1999
Justice Rehnquists's remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center were based on his recently published book All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime (Knopf, 1998). Read an excerpt.
Thank you, Mr. Hamilton, for your kind introduction. I would like to talk with you this morning about the issue of civil liberties in wartime. I will focus on the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Generally, Chief Executives in wartime are not very sympathetic to the protection of civil liberties, and our experiences in these three wars demonstrate the point.
The Civil War
Even those of you who did not major in history probably know that Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November of 1860, and was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1861. Between the time of his election and his inauguration, the seven states of the deep south -- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas -- had seceded from the Union and elected Jefferson Davis as their President. For the first six weeks of Lincoln's administration, the cabinet debated what to do about the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, on an island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In mid-April, the Confederate shore batteries opened up on the fort, and the garrison surrendered the next day. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, and the four states of the upper south -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas -- seceded and joined the original seven states of the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun. Washington, D. C. went from being an interior capital to a capital on the very frontier of the Union, exposed to possible raids and even investment and capture by the Confederate forces.
Lincoln, fully aware of this danger, was most anxious that the 75,000 volunteers for whom he had called would arrive in Washington and defend the city against a possible Confederate attack. Many would come from the northeast -- Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. But all of the rail connections from the northeast into Washington ran through the city of Baltimore, 40 miles to the northeast. Herein lay a problem; there were numerous Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore and the city itself, at that time, had a reputation for unruliness -- it was known as "Mob City." To complicate matters further, it was necessary for passengers enroute from the northeast to Washington to change stations in Baltimore.
Shortly after troops from the northeast began arriving in Baltimore on their way to Washington, a riot broke out while soldiers were in transit from one station to another. A hostile crowd pelted the troops with stones. The troops in
MORE HERE (http://wwics.si.edu/NEWS/speeches/rehnquist.htm)
Remarks of Supreme Court Chief Justice William A. Rehnquist
Director's Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
November 17, 1999
Justice Rehnquists's remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center were based on his recently published book All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime (Knopf, 1998). Read an excerpt.
Thank you, Mr. Hamilton, for your kind introduction. I would like to talk with you this morning about the issue of civil liberties in wartime. I will focus on the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Generally, Chief Executives in wartime are not very sympathetic to the protection of civil liberties, and our experiences in these three wars demonstrate the point.
The Civil War
Even those of you who did not major in history probably know that Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November of 1860, and was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1861. Between the time of his election and his inauguration, the seven states of the deep south -- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas -- had seceded from the Union and elected Jefferson Davis as their President. For the first six weeks of Lincoln's administration, the cabinet debated what to do about the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, on an island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In mid-April, the Confederate shore batteries opened up on the fort, and the garrison surrendered the next day. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, and the four states of the upper south -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas -- seceded and joined the original seven states of the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun. Washington, D. C. went from being an interior capital to a capital on the very frontier of the Union, exposed to possible raids and even investment and capture by the Confederate forces.
Lincoln, fully aware of this danger, was most anxious that the 75,000 volunteers for whom he had called would arrive in Washington and defend the city against a possible Confederate attack. Many would come from the northeast -- Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. But all of the rail connections from the northeast into Washington ran through the city of Baltimore, 40 miles to the northeast. Herein lay a problem; there were numerous Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore and the city itself, at that time, had a reputation for unruliness -- it was known as "Mob City." To complicate matters further, it was necessary for passengers enroute from the northeast to Washington to change stations in Baltimore.
Shortly after troops from the northeast began arriving in Baltimore on their way to Washington, a riot broke out while soldiers were in transit from one station to another. A hostile crowd pelted the troops with stones. The troops in
MORE HERE (http://wwics.si.edu/NEWS/speeches/rehnquist.htm)