commander in a time of war to declare martial law within the lines of
his military district and subject citizens as well as soldiers to the
rule of _his will_] and the calamities of war again befall us, the
dangers to human liberty are frightful to contemplate." No one can deny
that a danger here exists, but it is not so great as the solemn words of
the Supreme Court might lead one to believe. For Lincoln could not have
persisted in his arbitrary acts had a majority of Congress definitely
opposed them, and his real strength lay in the fact that he had the
people at his back. This may be said of the period from the first call
of troops in April, 1861, until the summer of 1862. McClellan's failure
on the Peninsula, Pope's disaster at the second battle of Bull Run, the
defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville lost Lincoln the
confidence of many; and while the emancipation proclamation of
September, 1862, intensified the support of others, it nevertheless
alienated some Republicans and gave to the opposition of the Democrats a
new vigor. But after Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July, 1863, Lincoln had
the support of the mass of the Northern people. Whatever he did the
people believed was right because he had done it. The trust each placed
in the other is one of the inspiring examples of free government and
democracy. Lincoln did not betray their confidence: they did not falter
save possibly for brief moments during the gloomy summer of 1864. The
people who gave their unreserved support to Lincoln were endued with
intelligence and common sense; not attracted by any personal magnetism
of the man, they had, by a process of homely reasoning, attained their
convictions and from these they were not to be shaken. This is the
safety of a dictatorship as long as the same intelligence obtains among
the voters as now; for the people will not support a ruler in the
exercise of extra-legal powers unless he be honest and patriotic. The
danger may come in a time of trouble from either an irresolute or an
unduly obstinate executive. The irresolute man would baffle the best
intentions of the voters; the obstinate man might quarrel with Congress
and the people. Either event in time of war would be serious and might
be disastrous. But the chances are against another Buchanan or Johnson
in the presidential office.

If the Civil War showed the flexibility of the Constitution in that the
executive by the general agreement of Congress and the p