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To: Bull Snipe
That is true, the States remained part of the Union. He declared them in a state of insurrection . As such, the President and the Congress exercised their Constitutional authority to used the Army and the Navy to suppress insurrection.

Even accepting this line of reasoning, it doesn't give Lincoln the authority to deprive all the citizens of only one class of "property."

If you are going to make the argument that it was for "Militarily advantageous" reasons, then the capture of all their property which could conceivably affect a military advantage should have been seized as well.

Their horses, their guns, their cattle (for food) and so forth should have been seized. Otherwise the idea that the seizure of their slaves for military reasons was a blatant lie.

At this time in history, the Constitution did not make a distinction between one type of "property" and another, and since it was illegal to seize people's property without due process, it was also illegal to seize their slaves without that same due process.

Of course, by this point in the war, nobody really gave a crap about legal matters, they were just doing whatever they wanted, and then plastering on an ad hoc legal "justification" for what they did. It was all a big game.

102 posted on 08/16/2017 11:43:38 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

The Federal armies routinely seized several classes of property belonging to Confederate civilians. They seized horses, hogs, mules, slaves, houses, real estate. Ask the people that lived in the Shenandoah valley what property General Sheridan seized. As the people of central Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina what property General Sherman seized.
Whether legal or not is again your opinion. What cases before the courts decided that seizing the property of those in insurrection was Unconstitutional


105 posted on 08/16/2017 12:04:17 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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