One major problem. He had no legal authority to do so. The Confederacy had seceded, just as the colonies had seceded from Britain in 1776, and as had 9 of the several states from the Articles of Confederation & Perpetual Union. Even if Lincoln did have some legality to issue the EP as a "war" measure, the Supreme Court had previously ruled that the owners of seized property must be renumerated. Lastly, even the Constitution prevents the taking of property by the federal government, and Lincoln wrote a letter to his law-partner Herndon that his actions were unconstitutional.