The Fate of Liberty is a comprehensive look at the issues of civil liberties during Lincoln's administration, placing them in the political context of the time. It examines the practical impact on civil liberties of the policies Lincoln developed to save the Union. Neely focuses on Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in a turbulent time of unforeseen events that threatened the stability of the nation - the threat to Washington as Maryland flirted with secession, disintegrating public order in the border states, corruption among military contractors, contraband trade with the South and the outcry against the first draft in United States history. Drawing upon letters from prisoners, records of military courts and federal prisons, memoirs, and federal archives, he paints a vivid picture of how Lincoln responded to these problems, how his policies were actually executed, and the virulent political debates that followed.
If Lincoln was known as the Great Emancipator, he was also the only president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Indeed, Lincoln's record on the Constitution and individual rights has fueled a century of debate, and he has even been viewed as a dictator. Now, the Director of the Lincoln Museum wades into this controversy to set the record straight in this Pulitzer Prize-winning work.
`Neely's book, which is the best scholarly examination of this issue ever written, will rehabilitate Lincoln's reputation on civil liberties ... extremely convincing'
Paul Finkelman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography, Vol. CXVI, No. 4 (October 1992)
