Lincoln and Citizens' Rights in Civil War Missouri: Balancing Freedom and Security

Critics have accused Abraham Lincoln of having over-stepped constitutional bounds and unnecessarily curtailed civil liberties during the American Civil War, but this examination by Bowman (history, Yorktown U.) of how the Lincoln administration approached civil liberties in Missouri, which faced pro-slavery guerilla bands and political divisions between Conservative Unionists and Radical Unionists over how to confront the guerillas and their supporters, offers a far more sympathetic picture of the President, finding that his handling of the slavery issue in Missouri "demonstrates an acute understanding of the limitations of his authority, the importance of fostering public support for wartime measures, and his reluctance to exercise more power than necessary to maintain Missouri within the Union." In support of this argument, Bowman offers a chronological review of how Lincoln reacted to political and military exigencies as they arose over the course of the war, hoping to thereby demonstrate Lincoln's pragmatic approach to making decisions as circumstances warranted in pursuit of the preservation of the Union. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dennis K. Boman is the author of Lincoln's Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter and Missouri's Civil War Governor and Abiel Leonard: Yankee Slaveholder, Eminent Jurist, and Passionate Unionist. He is the assistant director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Law at the Saint Louis University Law School.