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Where are you getting this declaration of war thing?

Phony cavil, Wlat.

Now answer the objection. The President had no authority to wage war against States that were no longer in the Union, were no longer "domestic States" within the meaning of your (uncited) passage from an (apparent) Supreme Court ruling, and were no longer in the territory of the United States of America.

Therefore, the President exceeded his powers by sending troops into Virginia to campaign there under arms, there being at that time no hostilities between Virginia and the United States, and no declaration of war by the United States Congress on alienated Virginia, nor by Virginia on the United States.

The President had no authority to wage war against States that were no longer in the Union, were no longer "domestic States" within the meaning of your (uncited) passage from an (apparent) Supreme Court ruling, and were no longer in the territory of the United States of America.

That song and dance doesn't play. The Militia Act of 1792 requires that United States law operate in all the states. It doesn't admit of any of your qualifications.

"The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the provision, that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." But, if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so, it may also discard the republican form of government; so that to prevent it's going out, is an indispensable means, to the end, of maintaining the guaranty mentioned; and when an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it, are also lawful, and obligatory."

--A. Lincoln 7/4/61.

You want something that flies in the face of common sense.

Walt

Phony cavil, Wlat.

What you appear to be discounting is that the rebel armies were defeated. They went home, deserted, refused parole, gave up the ghost, hid out, skedaddled.

No law has power without force, and the insurgents couldn't bring it.

Walt

Therefore, the President exceeded his powers by sending troops into Virginia to campaign there under arms, there being at that time no hostilities between Virginia and the United States, and no declaration of war by the United States Congress on alienated Virginia, nor by Virginia on the United States.

That's not what happened. No federal troops "campaigned" in Virginia until after Virginia's secession convention. President Lincoln proposed sending federal troops -through- Virginia to get to the insurgent area, which was the seven so-called seceded states that had, at that time, attempted to overthrow the legal government.

Walt

Wow. You are truly ignorant of the U.S. Constitution (circa 1860) and the lawful powers for the Federal government, as exercised by the Presidents before Lincoln, to quell rebellions, or wage war. Even taking your argument at face value, it falls of its own weight, as the President, as Commander in Chief, had every right to maintain the pre-existing properties of the Federal authority...such as Fort Sumter. And we DO know who fired the first shots there...don't we?! [Don't tell me you have a revisionist wacko version of that too].