[ConstitutionalConservative]

"Slavery was a state institution clearly protected in the Constitution. President Lincoln had NO power to affect it in the normal
course of administering the government. He had revoked emancipation initiatives by Generals Hunter and Butler early in the war
You obviously don't know the history.
President Lincoln well knew that the EP only had force as a war measure. That is why he was a strong advocate of the 13th
amendment."

Oh, I DO know the history. You are absoultely right. I have always said slavery was porotected by the constitution and Lincoln did know this.
When I said he didnt free the slaves in states where he had the power to, I wasnt speaking of
constitutional power. I was speaking of physical power. He had already used physical force aganist states exercising their constitutional rights, why stop then! He went aganist the constitution by just issuing the proclamation.
If the war was about slavery, as most seem to think, then he had already shown
that constitutionally protected rights were just a bump in the road for him.

Yes, it was a war measure, nothing more than a political move.

[WhiskeyPapa]

He went aganist the constitution by just issuing the proclamation.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1862 that the domestic rebels had the same relation to the government as if they were foreign enemies.

And as President Lincoln said, the law of war clearly allowed the seizure of enemy property. Were not slaves property in 1863 America?

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

When I said he didnt free the slaves in states where he had the power to, I wasnt speaking of constitutional power.

Most legitimate historians agree that Lincoln bent but never broke the Constitution. He took no actions throughout the war that were not open to interpretation. So he never considered freeing any slaves by mere force of arms in the north, or in any area occupied by Union armies.

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

Yes, it was a war measure, nothing more than a political move.

That's not true either.

There was a great deal of "political" opposition to the EP. That was the purpose of the Conkling letter. To strike that opposition with a large dose of common sense right between the eyes.

The EP added 200,000 men to the Union ranks. In August 1864 President Lincoln said that without these men, "we should have to abandon the war in three weeks."

One of the worst legacies of American history is how the blacks who had fought so bravely and given so much to the cause of freedom had so little of it for themselves and their families after the war.

Walt