Irrelevant. Your statement assumes that it was absolutely necessary to suspend the writ in the first place (as if he could not seek arrests and simply file charges with them). It is also incomparable to any situation Lincoln ever faced because where Jackson did not have a telegraph and was hundreds of miles away from the capital building, Lincoln DID have a telegraph and was about half a mile away from the capital building.
The capitol building where no one was home, while the rebels had sabatours burning the bridges between Philaderlphia and Baltimore that were to only way members of Congress could return to Washington in an expediant manner. There was no Reagan Ariport or I 95 in those days, ya know.
What would President Bush do if an insurrection broke out in the Washington suburbs today while Congress is out of session?
Irrelevant.
You wish it was.
It strikes straight to the heart of the matter. The executive (Jackson in this case) must have authority to act in an emergency.
The Constitution nowhere says what the president may or may not do in regard to the Writ. The matter has not been authoritatively decided to this very day.
However, when presented with a real world situation, Congress rewarded Jackson for his actions.
Walt
The only way that would affect the principle is if the Framers knew about telegraphs when they wrote the Constitution.
Walt