About the undeclared Civil War

Antiwar.com touches on the issue that I have raised a couple of times [1] [2] - namely that the U.S. Civil War did not meet the requirements of the U.S. Constitution's Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 regarding the required declaration of war. (Of course, antiwar.com then refers to Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt as fascists, but that's not important at the moment.)

The war against Mexico (in which half of that country was stolen) was provoked by U.S. troops as soon as possible after Texas' entry to the Union. Congress was "notified," that is, lied to, and declared war after the fact, to the infernal consternation of a congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. After gaining the presidency for himself, Lincoln turned around and provoked the first shots of the Civil War by sending troops to occupy Ft. Sumter, a tax-collection post in the bay of a state that had declared its independence. According to Thomas DiLorenzo, Lincoln "wrote to his naval commander Gustavus Fox thanking him for his assistance in drawing the first shot." Congress never did declare war, only that the war the president had started was for the purpose of "preserving the union" – months later.

By the time the Civil War was over, the idea that anything could limit the powers of the federal government was gone forever.

Well, that last statement is certainly true.

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