Lincoln, Military Force, and Constitutional Subterfuge

After Abraham Lincoln’s death, his long-time friend Ward Hill Lamon noted how Lincoln’s deification “took place with showy magnificence.” Union Officer Donn Piatt stated, “I hear of him, I read of him in eulogies and biographies, but I fail to recognize the man I knew in life.” The American education system and a long line of “Court Historians” have kept the Lincoln Myth alive. Inconvenient truths about Lincoln are generally ignored and anyone who points them out is typically attacked and vilified. This mirrors the communists use of the invented word “racist” to demonize, marginalize, or silence anyone who deviated from the approved government narrative.

Internet searches about Lincoln’s unconstitutional actions typically result in the claim he did not actually violate the constitution or his violations were justified in saving the geographical union. Furthermore, the South’s belief in a voluntary union and State sovereignty—based on overwhelming evidence—is routinely trivialized by the “Lincoln Cultists.”

Did Lincoln violate the U.S. Constitution or did he have implicit dictatorial powers to prevent the South from governing itself? Based on the commentary of the Founders and the voluntary manner in which the constitution was ratified, the federal government has no power to invade a State and/or force said State to remain in the union. Most presidents knew this. Lincoln either did not acknowledge this fact or he was surreptitiously pressured to ignore it.

Lincoln insisted the union existed before the States and was created through the 1774 Articles of Association, a boycott of imported British goods. This would have been a shock to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and even Hamilton. Although the seceding States held conventions and voted to leave the Union in a similar manner to the way they joined it, Lincoln claimed they did not literally leave the Union.

A few constitutional violations are as follows:

War Declared Without Consent of Congress: Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 11, 12: The reinforcement of Forts Sumter and Pickens were acts of war and had been understood as such dating back to the presidency of James Buchanan. Reinforcement achieved the results Lincoln anticipated.

Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus: Article 1, Section 2, The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may provide it. The Constitution gives this power to Congress. Lincoln took it upon himself to assume this power. Voting to leave a voluntary union is not a rebellion.

Blockading ports: Article 1, Section 8, Unauthorized declaration of war through Blockading Ports of States that Were Held by the Federal Government to still be in the Union. This brings up the absurd question – can a country blockade its own ports?

Illegal suspension of free speech and free press: Amendment 1, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The Bill of Rights describes what the federal government has no jurisdiction over. The federal government’s only legitimate powers are those delegated by the States in Article 1, Section 8. Beyond that, the States can pretty much do what they want.

Coercion: Article IV: The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities in the several States. Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops from each State to invade the seven seceded States undermined the basis of the creation of the American Republic.

Fugitive Slave Law: Article IV, Section II, Clause 3—No person held to Service of Labour in one State, under the laws thereof; escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour; but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. As bizarre as it sounds today, failure to return escaped slaves violated the Constitution. Lincoln’s idol, Henry Clay, was largely responsible for the most draconian parts of this act.

International law: The Trent Affair—Two Southern representatives, John Slidell and James Mason, were dispatched by Jefferson Davis to seek assistance from Great Britain and France toward gaining Southern independence. They were illegally removed from The Trent, a British mail ship. England came perilously close to going to war with the North after this episode.

Instead of negotiating with the States, Lincoln refused to diffuse a situation that should not have been elevated to war. Why did Lincoln and the Radical Republicans play fast and loose with the Constitution in their efforts to deny the right of self-government to the Southern States? The “Court Historians” will do all they can to obfuscate the answer.

Sources: Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation, by John M. Taylor; Was Davis a Traitor?, by Albert Taylor Bledsoe; “The Cult of Lincoln,” America’s Caesar: The Decline and Fall of Republican Government in the United States of America, by Greg Loren Durand, Originally from Life of Abraham Lincoln (1872), by Ward H. Lamon; Facts and Falsehoods, by George Edmonds, Original source: Memories of the Men Who Saved the Union (1887), by Donn Piatt; President James Buchanan stated the federal government has no constitutional power to coerce a seceded State back into the Union. The Articles of Association was a response to the Intolerable Acts where Britain economically punished the colonies. Lincoln initially supported full enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Relentless efforts have been made to have the Bill of Rights apply to the States through the 14th Amendment and the tactic known as incorporation.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.