Emergency Powers During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: He used his war powers to proclaim a blockade He suspended the writ of habeas corpus Habeas corpus is a legal action through which a person can seek relief from the unlawful detention of him or herself, or of another person. He spent money before Congress appropriated it He imprisoned between 15,000 and 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial.

The Gettysburg Address In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality written in the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant.

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