Isn't it interesting that these high lofty ideals are expressed 5 DAYS after the Union armies invasion of Virginia, their defeat and rout at the Battle of 1st Manassas/Bull Run? Sounds like empty words and hinny kissing to me when they thought that the Confederate Army was about to enter Washington DC at any moment. If anyone was fighting to defend the principals of the Constitution as written and understood in 1861 it was the Confederacy.

The Unionist war cry in July 1861 was not "Protect the Constitution", it was "Preserve the Union" at any cost even at the point of a Bayonet. Lincoln clearly demonstarted that maintaining the Union of the several states was paramount to all other considerations even to the suspencion of Constitutional rights and protections of that very Constitution which he swore to Protect and Defend. NO President has every been legally given such powers to superceed the Constitution under the Constitution, although many have tryed and are still trying to assume such powers.. This writter was clearly out of touch with the reality of the Lincoln politics.