{"id":3789,"date":"2011-04-25T13:32:03","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T18:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/?p=3789"},"modified":"2011-04-25T08:54:19","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T13:54:19","slug":"president-lincoln-the-maryland-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2011\/04\/25\/president-lincoln-the-maryland-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"President Lincoln &#038; the Maryland Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/6095\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3790\" title=\"Lincoln\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/files\/2011\/04\/HD_lincolnAMay1861-265x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/files\/2011\/04\/HD_lincolnAMay1861-265x300.jpg 265w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/files\/2011\/04\/HD_lincolnAMay1861.jpg 529w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px\" \/><\/a> One hundred fifty years ago today President <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/6095\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/36746\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> General <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/6542\" target=\"_blank\">Winfield Scott<\/a> about what he should do when the <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/8996\" target=\"_blank\">Maryland<\/a> legislature met in <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/9158\" target=\"_blank\">Annapolis<\/a>. While Lincoln had \u201cconsidered\u2026 whether it would not be justifiable\u2026 to arrest, or disperse the members of that body,\u201d he <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/36746\" target=\"_blank\">concluded <\/a>that such action \u201cwould <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">not<\/span> be justifiable\u201d since \u201cthey have a clearly legal right to assemble.\u201d In addition, Lincoln noted that the United States Government could \u201cnot permanently prevent\u201d the Maryland legislature from meeting. If arrested, Lincoln believed that upon their release from prison \u201cthey will immediately re-assemble, and take their action.\u201d Yet if the Maryland legislature met and took action against the United States, Lincoln authorized General Scott to respond with force.\u00a0If Maryland \u201carm[ed] their people against the United States,\u201d Lincoln instructed Scott \u201cto adopt the most prompt, and efficient means to counteract it, even, if necessary, to the bombardment of their cities.\u201d In addition, Lincoln was also prepared to authorize \u201cthe suspension of the writ of habeas corpus\u201d in Maryland. You can read more about the political situation in Maryland in David Detzer\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=dwburRMoqcgC&amp;lpg=PR2&amp;dq=%22Dissonance%3A%20The%20Turbulent%20Days%20Between%20Fort%20Sumter%20and%20Bull%20Run%22&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=true\" target=\"_blank\">Dissonance: The Turbulent Days Between Fort Sumter and Bull Run<\/a><\/em> (2006) and in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%202,%20Chap%2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Chapter 23<\/a> of Michael Burlingame\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.knox.edu\/academics\/distinctive-programs\/lincoln-studies-center\/burlingame-abraham-lincoln-a-life.html\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a><\/em> (2008).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One hundred fifty years ago today President Abraham Lincoln wrote General Winfield Scott about what he should do when the Maryland legislature met in Annapolis. While Lincoln had \u201cconsidered\u2026 whether it would not be justifiable\u2026 to arrest, or disperse the members of that body,\u201d he concluded that such action \u201cwould not be justifiable\u201d since \u201cthey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,172],"tags":[4759],"class_list":["post-3789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war-1861-1865","category-letters-diaries","tag-laws-litigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3789"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3793,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions\/3793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}