As for Lincoln personally, what other President in American history had a greater excuse to suspend the Constitution and the upcoming election? Yet he did neither.
He didn’t suspend the Constitution but rather ignored it whole cloth. He didn’t suspend the 1864 elections, but made damn sure the casualty figures from Cold Harbor were not made public. Yea, he was a great all around guy. After imprisoning over 13,000 of his fellow Americans who disagreed with him politically, how much real competition was their to him.
You are referring to the "Bill of Rights," not to the original seven articles. The "Bill of Rights" was a hypocritical invention of the Jeffersonian aristocrats to make damn sure the federal government never interfered with slavery. It has morphed into the most centralizing feature of the Constitution, invoked by the ACLU every time a local high school principal edits the "f-"word out of a student newspaper. So how did that turn out for you?
He didn’t suspend the 1864 elections, but made damn sure the casualty figures from Cold Harbor were not made public. Yea, he was a great all around guy. After imprisoning over 13,000 of his fellow Americans who disagreed with him politically, how much real competition was their to him.
Unlike that great anti-centralizing localist Jefferson Davis, right?
I'm sorry, but morality is more important than "liberty." And I'm afraid I much prefer Puritans to loose-moraled, bourbon swilling Episcopalians.