Slashdot Mirror
Lincoln's Surveillance State
An anonymous reader writes "The N.S.A.'s program is indeed alarming — but not, from a historical perspective, unprecedented. And history suggests that we should worry less about the surveillance itself and more about when the war in whose name the surveillance is being conducted will end. In 1862, after President Abraham Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton penned a letter to the president requesting sweeping powers, which would include total control of the telegraph lines. By rerouting those lines through his office, Stanton would keep tabs on vast amounts of communication, journalistic, governmental and personal. On the back of Stanton's letter Lincoln scribbled his approval: 'The Secretary of War has my authority to exercise his discretion in the matter within mentioned.'"
Hah! You're killing me. You'd let everything you care about perish rather than eavesdrop on people? If you had been president during the civil war there would be a large country between the US and Mexico today. Eavesdropping on people is one of the least of the compromises President Lincoln made.
Lincoln was a despot who trampled the Constitution far more than any modern President has, and the changes he started led to the situation we have today where the Federal Government is all powerful compared to the States.
Was he right or wrong? I really can't say, and it's a question I've struggled with. The fact remains that it's quite politically incorrect to talk about his despotism. Instead everyone seems to revere him.