"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
"A Semblance of Order"
[Lincoln's Sec. Of War Edwin Stanton] "was also in favor of the suspension of habeas corpus and backed his boss in other extra-democratic moves. Though military commissions had been used to try civilians early in the war, for example, under Stanton they became widespread. More than 13,000 citizens were arrested and charged with sedition. Some were surreptitiously aiding the Confederacy, but others were just speaking out against the trying of ordinary citizens by army and navy officers. The secretary had the president’s ear, however, and this policy continued, observes Marvel, 'until a federal judge’s ruling in a false-arrest suit opened the possibility that he might be held accountable for his actions.' "
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