History alert!
Near the end of the war, Lincoln freed the southern slaves.
This was long after secession, long after the war began, long after there were no southern states in congress.
The last American slaves to be freed were in New Jersey.
New Jersey had a total of 18 permanent apprentices in 1860. All other former slaves had been turned into apprentices, served their 7 years, and freed. Their children were born free. That example was available to the slave state if they ever wanted to free their slaves. Those 18 were very old family retainers by the time of the civil war.
The pretended secession was of no legal meaning. The insurrection failed. the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from the time of its issue to the rest of the war as the US Army covered the south in various offensives.
By contrast, the pretended confederates captured persons of african descent and reenslaved them, a war crime when they did that to US soldiers of African descent. That war crime led to the breakdown of the POW exchange agreement. Suprise suprise! the slave power didn’t keep their agreement.
What mercy and restraint was shown by the victorious US government. I would have been tempted to string up all pretended confederate officials, and military officials over colonel. Their deluded soldiers should have seen the inside of a POW camp as a warning to be more careful of who they elect in the future.
Grant and Sherman were too merciful for that. Sherman was so merciful that the terms he proposed were rejected by the US government, and terms essentially identical to those of Grant were substituted.
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