...parried the remonstrances as they came with tact and logic. ' ' Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? This is not the less injurious when effected by getting a father, brother, or friend into a public meeting,...

...agitator who induces him to desert? This is not the less injurious when effected by getting a father, brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings until he is persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause for a wicked administration...

...penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this punishment. Shall I shoot a simpleminded soldier boy who deserts while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting...

...carrying out the sentence. To release him would be even worse. "Why," asked Lincoln, "must I shoot the simpleminded soldier boy who deserts while I must not touch a hair of the head of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?" The President's tact in handling the situation...

...blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many. • • • Must I shoot a simple minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a...father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting and then working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting in...

...than too many. And then he phrased his dilemma in a way to make it understood at Northern hearthsides: "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts,...hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?" army. There is no proof of this assertion, and on the whole Lincoln might have done better to overrule...

...rhetorical question that turned out to be the most powerful — and famous — part of his argument. "Must I shoot a simpleminded soldier boy who deserts,...hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? ... I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional,...

...rhetorical question that turned out to be the most powerful — and famous — part of his argument. "Must I shoot a simpleminded soldier boy who deserts,...hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? ... I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional,...

...bore some responsibility for the crimes for which the others were being executed. "Must I," he asked, "shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while...hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? ... I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional,...

...was arrested for treason and exiled to the Confederacy, Lincoln defended the banishment as follows: "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts,...hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?" Although it is accepted that a government may use military tribunals to try enemy soldiers, Lincoln...