“you account for the fact that executive orders do not equal laws (thus the need for amendment)”
More of your sophistical loop-de-loops. Just because there were lingering doubts about future legality which the 13th amendment laid to rest does not mean the EP wouldn’t have held in any case. Also, even if SCOTUS had declared the EP unconstitutional or limited its “henceforward” to mean until such time as the rebellion ended instead of forever after, that still doesn’t mean Lincoln didn’t free 4 million slaves, however briefly. I’ll admit that’d be faint praise, but, hey, I’m just following where the argument leads.
Finally, nevermind that it was just an executive order and a wartime emrgency one at that. On a practical level I just don’t understand how anyone can seriously believe the EP would’ve been overturned and the slaves returned to bondage after the war. Come on. The barn door was open; they weren’t getting back in.