The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

A Just and Lasting Peace : The Wade-Davis Bill


The Wade-Davis Bill of February 15, 1864.

The Bill purported to rely on the first clause of Article IV, Section 4, though it is plainly irrelevant to the case.

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

At no time did the Southern states lack republican governments, there had been no usurpations, and their governments were never overthrown by anyone but the invading Union armies.

Nor does IV, 4 authorize federal emancipation within any state, deprivation of citizenship, or forcing abolition of slavery on any state.

Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill and issued a proclamation expressing his disbelief congress had the power to abolish slavery in the states, though this bill did not quite seek to do exactly that.

In his comment on this proclamation of Lincoln's, editor Smith, not for the first time, seems to confuse emancipation with abolition.

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