Lincoln's War Power Underlied Emancipation

choi

Allen C Guelzo, How Lincoln Saved the 'Central Idea' of America. 'In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free,' the president said of the Emancipation Proclamation. Wall Street Journal, Sept 21, 2012 (essay).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 08411397033822.html

Quote:

"Lincoln had ample authority to put down an insurrection. But slavery was a matter of individual state enactments and statutes. Lincoln said repeatedly, including in his first inaugural address, that under the Constitution he had no authority 'directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.'

"The presence of so many slaves, digging and carrying for the Confederate armies, gave him room to emancipate them on the grounds of military necessity—and military necessities fell squarely under his power as commander in chief in time of war. On July 22, 1862, he presented his cabinet with a draft Emancipation Proclamation, predicated on his war powers and freeing all slaves in Confederate-held territory.

"It was not the cleanest method of emancipation, and Lincoln knew it. Because he issued the proclamation under his war powers, it exempted the slaves in the four slave states (Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware) that remained loyal to the Union. Emancipation also did not apply in any occupied districts of the Confederacy where resistance had ceased.

"Lincoln also was anxious about possible court challenges to this exercise of presidential war powers.

My comment:
(a) The article focused on the legal authority of emancipation. After all, Dred Scott v Sandford (1857) 60 US 393 saw no wrong with slavery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford
(b) The quotation is the essence of the article. One may not need to read the rest of it (article).