Christopher Hitchens ...

... on The Man Who Made Us Whole. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If given a blind test and asked which "tyrannical" president had suspended the writ of habeas corpus, closed the most newspapers, arrested the most political rivals, opened and censored the most mail and executed the most American citizens without trial, few students would mention the "Great Emancipator" as the original supremo of big government. But the facts must be faced, as Lincoln faced them. Until the Union itself could be considered safe and whole again, the Constitution—written for the entire Union and, in a sense, representing it—did not really apply, even though the president's "inherent powers" most certainly did.

Odd that it takes an Englishman to remind us of this.