They didn't say that secession was illegal, they said "[t]heir right to do so is now being decided by wager of battle."
Which is another way of declaring that "wager of battle" is a valid way for the Federal Government to deal with secessionists.
They didn't say that secession was illegal, they said "[t]heir right to do so is now being decided by wager of battle."
Well, you've a quote here but you don't say where it came from.
That is the fly in the buttermilk on this history business. You can't just make things up, you have to build a case in the record.
And in the Prize Cases, the Court ruled that the president was authorized by the Militia Act to put down insurrrection against a state or the United States.
See how it works?
Walt