Seven slave states seceded from the Union once Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Four more states joined when hostilities began to break out between the North and South. This conflict turned into a bloody civil war, pitting brother against brother and costing the lives of over 600,000 Americans. President Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union and fight the rebels. In these efforts, President Lincoln abused his enumerated powers and violated one of the nation's fundamental rights he was trying to preserve when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus and ignored the Supreme Court while unreasonably defending his own illegal actions. The writ of habeas corpus is perhaps the most important right a citizen possesses. Sir William Blackstone, the author of the young Lincoln's venerated Commentaries on the Laws of England, said that "the writ of habeas corpus [is] the most celebrated act of English law." The act guarantees someone imprisoned by the government will appear before a court where a judge will determine whether they have been lawfully detained. Once suspended, the government has no legal responsibility to confirm the cause of detention. This act can be considered as “the fundamental safeguard against illegal and arbitrary state action”. The power to suspend habeas corpus clearly exists in the Constitution of the United States of America. In Article One, Section Nine, the Constitution simply states, “The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless so required in cases of rebellion or invasion of the public safety.” However, this clause never specified which branch of government was responsible for this suspension, and it certainly did not insinuate this......suspension of habeas corpus. The President's normally infallible logic is once again called into question; How can a president uphold the values ​​and doctrines of the Constitution while illegally suspending one of the fundamental principles of citizenship? In conclusion, President Lincoln violated constitutional law and abused his enumerated powers when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, also known as the writ of liberty, within the loyal states. He ignored the advice of the Chief Justice by illogically defending his own illegal actions. To preserve the Union, Lincoln sacrificed fundamental principles whose importance as a lawyer he understood. President Abraham Lincoln abused his presidential power, violating the fundamental rights of the Union he was trying to preserve.