Thursday, February 15, 2007

More on the Unconstitutional Civil War

On February 13, 2007, the Des Moines Register ran an article by Roy Dale Voorhees entitled What are president's powers to wage a losing war? The Civil War was discussed in passing, as were other wars.

At no time during the Civil War did Lincoln ever ask Congress for a declaration of war. He initiated formal hostilities by declaring a naval blockade of the Confederacy on April 19,1861. Lincoln steadily enlarged his war powers. He closed post offices and ports, tried civilians in military courts and, most famously, suspended the writ of habeas corpus. When Chief Justice Roger Taney pronounced the suspension unconstitutional, Lincoln ignored him and said, "I suppose I have any power necessary to subdue the enemy."

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2 comments:

Jennifer said...

You have been doing some serious research! I will have to come back and read all this when I have a little more time.

Ontario Emperor said...

If you get a chance, click the link(s) at the end of each post. I'm going overboard with my del.icio.us tagging.