[4CJ]

I think not. In both the Hodges letter you provide and the Conkling letter I quote, Lincoln states that the EP WAS constitutional. Even if you could torture the Hodges letter into meaning that "Lincoln thought the EP unconstiutional", the Conkling letter was conveniently ignored by you -- so you could lie and distort the record.

Tortured? Just what part of "I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful" don't you understand?

Besides, the Conklin letter was dated 24 Aug 1863, while the letter to Hodges was 4 Apr 1864, some 8 months later. Distort the record? Lincoln clarified it.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Tortured? Just what part of "I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful" don't you understand?

Lincoln is clearly saying in the Hodges letter that the measures he took -were- constitutional because of the extreme nature of the situation, a position he took at the time and then avowed to Hodges in April, 1864.

In the Conkling letter he states point blank that the EP was constitutional. That letter was written in August, '63.

Nothing in the Hodges letter nine months later contradicts what he wrote to Conkling.

You tried to pull another fast one, and as usual, you got caught.

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

Distort the record? Lincoln clarified it.

What Lincoln said -is- the record, good bad or indifferent. You have tried to distort the record, if only by ignoring the Conkling letter, which you have seen many times before.

It is simply false to suggest that Lincoln himself thought the EP unconstitutional. It is a lie.

Walt