What did Lincoln say about suspending habeas corpus?

The question touches on some of the gravest decisions of my presidency, and I am glad to speak plainly about it. When the rebellion broke out, I found myself confronted with a Constitution that both guaranteed the writ of habeas corpus and provided for its suspension. My message to Congress in July 1861 addressed the apparent tension directly. As I put it in that message, “are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated” I did not believe any law was in fact violated, because the Constitution itself plainly permits suspension in cases of rebellion when the public safety requires it. I also explained why ordinary courts simply cannot meet the emergency. In my response to the Albany Democrats, I observed that “arrests are made, not so much for what has been done, as for what probably would be done” — meaning the purpose is preventive, not punitive. A civil court trying defined crimes cannot reach that object. As for who holds the power to suspend — the Constitution is silent on the point. By necessary implication, I concluded the decision falls to the commander-in-chief, accountable afterward to the people. And I confess I told the Albany meeting I thought “the time not unlikely to come when I shall be blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many”