[WhiskeyPapa]

Only in the same way a mugger's empowered to your wallet.

It's all boo-hoo-hoo from the neo-rebs. "Mean ole Lincoln kicked our butts!"

The sesesh should have read the fine print.

I bet they were pretty stunned that President Lincoln had read the Constitution, and they hadn't.

Walt

[Maelstrom]

To summarize, and hopefully conclude:

To identify the birthing of a historical legacy documenting the loss of freedom, some libertarians and some conservatives point to the loss of states' rights during the War Between the States under Lincoln as a major battle and loss for freedom. It's initiation, it's continuation, and it's legacy all set poor precedents which may yet result in an American Tyrannical state.

Others insist that it is a poor example of such because of the single issue of slavery. Some seem to go so far as to accept total genocide of Confederate citizens by the Federal government upon their putative surrender in 1865.