Was it not legal in the Southern states?
Cajoling and bribery were acceptable legally.
When you have the armies of the North, everything is acceptable legally.
As CinC he could try to end slavery in the states that had seceded from the Union and were in a state of rebellion against the United states.
Where in the Constitution did he get the power to do this?
The Constitution designates the President of the United States as the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces in war time.
So this gives him the power to suspend all rights which were supposedly protected by the Constitution? He can suspend trial by Jury? He can suspend due process? He can suspend the fifth amendment, the fourth amendment, and the rest?
No, He violated the rules of Habeas corpus in early in the war.
And freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and pretty much anything else he saw as interfering with his agenda. His bodyguard even claimed that he had signed an order to have Chief Justice Taney arrested.
He took on the powers of a Dictator. The law was what he said it was, not what was agreed to by the founders.
Had Lincoln not broken the Constitutional bounds on his powers, he could not have done what he did.
Lincoln did not make slavery illegal in the rebelling states. He freed the slaves. There is a difference.
Where in the Constitution did he get the power to do this?
Under the Confiscation Acts of 1861 and 1862. The legality of which was upheld by the Prize Cases ruling issued by the Supreme Court in 1863.
And freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and pretty much anything else he saw as interfering with his agenda. His bodyguard even claimed that he had signed an order to have Chief Justice Taney arrested.
And you're drifting into lala land again.
He took on the powers of a Dictator. The law was what he said it was, not what was agreed to by the founders.
Really deep into lala land.
The Southern States left the United States. The Constitution of the United States no longer applied to them. Article II section 2 of the Constitution of the United States gives him the legal authority to conduct the war. If you would take the time to read the Constitution, you would know the answers to these questions. It was not his “body guard”, it was his office secretary that related the information about an arrest warrant for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. You know him, he was the one that issued the Dred Scott Decision. Had the Confederacy not started a War with the United States he would not have done what he had to do.
A