Lincoln’s most controversial act was authorizing General Scott to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, thus allowing the government to arrest and detain persons without charges. Seward recommended that step, but Lincoln at first demurred. When the secretary of state argued that “perdition was the sure penalty for further hesitation,” however, the president acquiesced. The initial suspension, limited to military lines between Washington and Philadelphia, was authorized on April 27. Two weeks later Lincoln suspended the writ in Florida. In early July, he authorized Scott to do the same along the military lines between Washington and New York. Responding to several arrests in Washington, he counseled restraint in using the power thus granted: “Unless the necessity for … arbitrary arrests is manifest, and urgent, I prefer that they should cease.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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