All the Laws but One

the long version

In 1861, with the survival of the United States in jeopardy, Abraham Lincoln - the Great Emancipator and champion of human freedom - responded to the national threat by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, a traditional bulwark of individual liberty. Lincoln's decision reveals in stark terms a conflict inherent in the practice of American democracy, and in this absorbing new study the Chief Justice of the United States examines the inevitable clash between the demands of a successful war effort and the compelling need to protect civil liberties. Taking his title from Lincoln's speech before Congress defending his suspension of the writ, William H. Rehnquist relates in vivid detail how the exigencies of wartime have strained, threatened, and ultimately confirmed our most cherished civil liberties.