>> As a lawyer, you SHOULD know that, LEGALLY, the “four corners of the agreement” is all that matters. That is why the “four corners” had to be changed via the 13th Amendment, and subsequently the 14th Amendment.
I am aware of how to read and interpret the law. But, we’re not arguing about what the law WAS — we’re arguing about whether the law was LEGITIMATE. The “four corners” rule applies only to interpreting what the law is, not its legitimacy.
It was the law (according to the “four corners”) that King George could tax the colonies without their consent — but that law was illegitimate, because legitimate law can only be derived from the consent of the governed. The law, according to the “four corners” of the Constitution, was that innocent men could be enslaved against their will — and that law was illegitimate, because it was not derived with the consent of the enslaved.
>> You ARE allowing your feelings to interfere with a strictly logical and rational interpretation of what is, basically, a legal contract between the United States government and its member States and citizens.
Nonsense. Slaves cannot be bound by a legal contract to which they did not agree. Basic contract law.
>> At the time the agreement was written and codified, slaves were not recognized as citizens (or even men, according to some). They were considered property. Thus, the legal agreement did not include rights for them.
... without the consent of the governed (slaves). Again, the essential contradiction. We overthrew the illegitimate non-consensual governance of King George, and instituted illegitimate non-consensual governance over blacks.
>> What matters is, as I have already said, what is WRITTEN in the agreement.
The men that wrote the agreement had no legitimate authority to deprive black persons of their freedom (according to the very theories of governance espoused in the revolution they founded).
SnakeDoc
No. YOU are arguing as to whether it was “legitimate”.
I was and AM arguing what the law actually WAS.
And in the end, the “legitimacy” of a law is simply a matter of whether the government can/will enforce it.