By Dave Warren
The Civil War, which began 150 years ago, did much to change the nation and one man used the war to remove state powers and replace them with his ill-conceived idea of a strong federal system.
He was the father of today’s GOP – the same party that cries for smaller government still honors the one who shredded the U.S. Constitution for a selfish and tyrannical reason.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the states maintained militia groups and raised their own “armies”. It was a power the states had held since the forming of the the Republic and one that many states felt strongly about, as it gave them a method of keeping the federal government in check, having forces equal to, and in many cases, bigger than the rather small federal army.
Indeed, Lincoln himself knew the power of the states when he issued an impassioned proclamation calling up state militias on April 15, 1861, writing…
“Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law,

Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details, for this object, will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.

I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to re-possess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.”

Obviously 20 days was nowhere near enough time to bring those states which had left the Union back into the fold. A fact that even Lincoln, who wasn’t the most intelligent man to occupy the White House, was aware of. But he had a deeper purpose than simply calling forth militia. His ultimate goal was to remove the militia from state control and place it with the federal government, thereby removing any future military challenge to a strong federal system by the states.

As the war progressed, and the Federal Army suffered defeat after defeat, Lincoln moved to consolidate the power of military might. Following the defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men , and seeing an opportunity, Lincoln issued a degree which removed the power of states to raise a militia and gave the power solely to the federal government.

While many governors opposed the move, citing the Constitution and the reason for state control of their own armies, Lincoln pushed the issue, claiming that only with federal power to raise an army, could the war be won.

Thus Lincoln ended one of the strongest protections against a strong federal government and set the course for the power welded by today’s system.
Lincoln, often revered by many, was a tyrant and a dictator. He violated more dictates of the U.S. Constitution than any other President in history, including the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. His sole goal in the White House was not the freeing of slaves, but rather consolidation of power by the Federal Government.

Indeed, many point to his request that Union soldiers treat confederates as equals when captured as proof that he was humane in his treatment of a vanquished enemy. However, history shows a different side. Consider this demand by Lincoln, issued on July 30, 1863, and known as the Order of retaliation:

“It is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations and the usages and customs of war as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person, on account of his color, and for no offence against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism and a crime against the civilization of the age.

The government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession.

It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.”

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