Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. The freeing of slaves in the South helped the U.S. Governments cause and impeded the Confederate cause.
“The freeing of slaves in the South helped the U.S. Governments cause and impeded the Confederate cause.”
No one has ever said it better than the London Spectator and this, contemporaneously: “The Government liberates the enemy’s slaves as it would the enemy’s cattle, simply to weaken them in the coming conflict . . . the principle asserted is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.”
There can be made a reasonable argument along these lines, but after it was over, how can you argue that they didn't have to comply with article IV, section 2?