The emancipation proclamation was not a law

[Robert W]

We all know about the emancipation proclamation, did you think it was law?
Thinking of what Trump is doing to protect our citizens, it got me to thinking about the emancipation proclamation which was not law at all. So how did Lincoln get away with his edict?

AI Overview

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln, was not a law passed by Congress. It was a presidential proclamation, an executive order, and therefore not a law. The proclamation declared slaves in Confederate states as free, but it did not outlaw slavery nationwide, nor did it free slaves in Union states.

 

[martybegan]

We all know about the emancipation proclamation, did you think it was law?
Thinking of what Trump is doing to protect our citizens, it got me to thinking about the emancipation proclamation which was not law at all. So how did Lincoln get away with his edict?

AI Overview

View attachment 1123114
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln, was not a law passed by Congress. It was a presidential proclamation, an executive order, and therefore not a law. The proclamation declared slaves in Confederate states as free, but it did not outlaw slavery nationwide, nor did it free slaves in Union states.

It was a wartime act directed only at States in open Rebellion. All it did was allow the Union forces once they took over a given area to remove the slaves in that area from servitude.

 

[Robert W]

It was a wartime act directed only at States in open Rebellion. All it did was allow the Union forces once they took over a given area to remove the slaves in that area from servitude.

Sounds illegal to me.

 

[martybegan]

Sounds illegal to me.

So was secession. I was rendered moot by the Reconstruction Amendments.

 

[White 6]

Sounds illegal to me.

An executive action, determined to be the best policy during a time of open war, in our country, completely legal at the time, and especially now, that this supreme court says anything the Pres does as an official act is legal beyond contest. Get over it.

 

[Robert W]

So was secession. I was rendered moot by the Reconstruction Amendments.

This nation was founded on the right to secede.

 

[martybegan]

This nation was founded on the right to secede.

There is no mechanism for it in the Constitution.

This question was answered by the Civil War. They only way out is to fight your way out.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

There is no mechanism for it in the Constitution.

This question was answered by the Civil War. They only way out is to fight your way out.

What Really Put a Crack in the Liberty Bell

The Constitution was inadequate and totally controlled by a few petty plutocrats with axes to grind and a Northeastern hereditary Axis to create. It violated every promise in its Preamble, not only "a more perfect union."

Its results are as if "we, the people" referred only to the elitist Framers devising it, and to no one else.