[Bubba Ho-Tep]

How does a military measure change the Constitution? It can't. If the Southern states were still in the Union, as Lincoln claimed, he had no Constitutional authority to abolish slavery in any state.

Technically, the Emancipation didn't legally end slavery in the rebelling states. Read it. It never says that it's making slavery illegal in those states. It says that it's freeing the slaves. It's similar to a civil forfeiture in a drug case. When the government seizes a drug kingpin's house, car, boat and cash, they're not making the ownership of houses, cars, boats and cash illegal. Putting a legal end to slavery was accomplished via the 13th amendment and the Reconstruction state constitutions.

[phi11yguy19]

It's similar to a civil forfeiture in a drug case.

For that analogy to work, you'd have to equate illegal drug trafficking with what was at the time legal slavery or legal secession. I don't see the similarity.

When the government seizes a drug kingpin's house, car, boat and cash, they're not making the ownership of houses, cars, boats and cash illegal.

Again, for that analogy to work, the E.P. would've only applied to Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee or (stretching it out a bit) to any who raised arms in the South. A more accurate analogy would be the fed seizing the houses, cars, boats and cash of everyone in Florida because there's drug trafficking somewhere in Miami. Again, I don't see the similarity.