I Felt I was Within My Power to Do It

Dubious Legality of the Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln :

Go Make Peace; 

Thunder forth, God of War. 

We'll commence our assault on Wilmington from the sea. 

Why is this burnt? Was the boy playing with it? 

It got took by a breeze several nights back. 

This is an official War Department map. 

And the entire Cabinet's waiting to hear what it portends. 

A bombardment. From the largest fleet the Navy has ever assembled. 

Lincoln :

Old Neptune, shake thy hoary locks. 

Fifty-eight ships are under way, 

of every tonnage and firing range. 

We'll keep up a steady barrage. 

Our first target is Fort Fisher. 

It defends Wilmington Port. 

A steady barrage? 

A hundred shells a minute. 

Till they surrender. 

Dear God. Wilmington's their 

last open seaport, therefore... 

Wilmington falls, 

Richmond falls after. 

And The War is done. 

Hear, hear. 

Then why, if I might ask are we not concentrating 

The Nation's attention on Wilmington? 

Why, instead, are we reading in The Herald 

that the anti-slavery amendment is being precipitated 

onto the House floor for debate? 

Because your eagerness, in what seems an unwarranted intrusion of the executive into legislative prerogatives, 

is compelling it to what's... 

To what's likely to be its premature demise. 

Hear, hear. 

You signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 

You've done all that could be done. 

The Emancipation Proclamation's 

merely A War Measure. 

After The War, The Courts... 

When Edward Bates was Attorney General, 

he felt confident enough to let you sign it. 

Different lawyers, different opinions. 

It frees slaves as a military exigent. Not... 

Lincoln :

I don't recall Edward Bates being any too certain a

bout the legality of my proclamation. 

Just it wasn't downright criminal. 

Somewhere in between. 

Back when I rode the legal circuit in Illinois, 

I defended a woman from Metamora named Melissa Goings. 

Seventy-seven years old. 

They said she'd murdered her husband. He was 83. 

He was choking her and she grabbed a hold 

of a stick of firewood and fractured his skull and he died. 

In His Will, he wrote, I expect she has killed me. 

If I get over it, I will have revenge. 

No one was keen to see her convicted, 

he was that kind of husband. 

I asked the prosecuting attorney if I might have 

a short conference with my client. 

She and I went into a room in the courthouse, 

but I alone emerged. The window in the room 

was found to be wide open. 

It was believed the old lady may have climbed out of it. 

I told the bailiff, right before I left her in the room 

she asked me where she could get a good drink of water, 

and I told her, 'Tennessee.' 

Mrs Goings was seen no more in Metamora. 

Enough Justice had been done. 

They even forgave the bondsman her bail. 

I'm afraid I don't see... 

Lincoln :

I decided that The Constitution gives me War Powers 

but no one knows just exactly what those powers are. 

Some say They Don't Exist. 

I Don't Know. 

I decided I needed them to exist to uphold 

My Oath to Protect The Constitution. 

Which I decided meant I could take 

The Rebels' slaves from them 

as Property confiscated in War. 

That might recommend to suspicion 

that I agree with The Rebs 

that their slaves are property 

in the first place. Of course, 

I don't. Never have. 

I'm glad to see any Man free, 

and if calling A Man 

'property' or 'war contraband' 

Does The Trick, why I caught 

at The Opportunity. 

Now here's where it gets truly slippery : 

I use The Law allowing for the seizure 

of property in a war

 knowing it applies only to 

the property of governments 

and citizens of belligerent nations. 

Well, The South ain't a nation. 

That's why I can't negotiate with Them. 

So if, in fact, the Negroes are property, 

according to The Law, have I the right 

to take the Rebels' property from them, if 

I insist they're rebels only and not citizens 

of a belligerent country? 

And slipperier still, I maintain it ain't 

our actual Southern states in rebellion 

but only The Rebels living in those states, 

The Laws of which states remain in force. 

The Laws of which states remain in force. 

That means that since it's States' Laws that determine 

whether Negroes can be sold as slaves, as property, 

The federal government doesn't have a say in that --

At least not yet. Then Negroes in those states are slaves, 

hence property, hence my war powers allow me 

to confiscate them as such, 

so I confiscate them. 

But if I'm a respecter of States' Laws, 

How then can I legally free them 

with my Proclamation as I done? 

Unless I'm cancelling States' Laws? 

I felt The War demanded it.

My Oath demanded it. 

I felt right with myself, and 

I hoped it was legal to do it. 

I'm hoping still. 

Two years ago, I proclaimed these people emancipated.

 Then, thenceforward and forever free. 

Now, let's say The Courts decide 

I had no authority to do it. 

They might well decide that. 

Say there's no amendment abolishing slavery, 

say it's after The War and I can no longer 

use My War Powers to just 

ignore The Courts' decisions 

like I sometimes felt I had to do -- 

Might those people I freed 

be ordered back into slavery? 

That's why I'd like to get 

The 13th Amendment through 

The House, on its way to 

ratification by the states. 

Wrap the whole slavery thing up, forever and aye, 

as soon as I'm able. Now. End of this month. 

And I'd like you to stand behind me 

like My Cabinet's most always done. 

As The Preacher said, I could write shorter sermons, 

but once I start, I get too lazy to stop. 

"It seems to me, sir, you're describing precisely the sort of 

dictator the Democrats have been howling about."

"Dictators aren't susceptible to law."

"Neither is he. He just said as much. 

Ignoring the courts? Twisting meanings? 

What reins him in from... From... "

Lincoln :

Well, The People do that, I suppose. 

I signed The Emancipation Proclamation, what, 

a year and a half before my second election? 

I felt I was within My Power to Do It, however, 

I also felt that I might be wrong about that. 

I knew The People would tell me. 

I gave them a year and a half to think about it, 

and They re-elected me. 

And come February the first, 

I intend to sign the 13th Amendment. 

Well, Mr Representative Ashley. 

Tell us the news from the Hill. 

Ah, well, the news... 

Why, for instance, is this thus, and what is 

the reason for this thusness? 

James, we want you to bring the anti-slavery amendment 

to the floor for debate, immediately. 

Excuse me, what? 

You are the amendment's manager, are you not? 

I am, of course, but... 

Lincoln :

Then we're counting on robust radical support so 

tell Mr Stevens we expect him to put his back into it.

It's not going to be easy, but... 

It's impossible. No. I am sorry, no. 

We can't organise anything immediately in the House. 

I have been canvassing the Democrats since the election, 

in case any of them have softened after they got walloped, 

but they have stiffened, if anything, Mr Secretary. 

There aren't nearly enough votes. 

Lincoln :

We're whalers, Mr Ashley. 

Whalers? 

As in... Whales? 

Lincoln :

We've been chasing this whale for a long time. 

And we finally placed a harpoon in the monster's back. 

It's in, James. It's in. We finish the deed now. We can't wait. 

Or with one flop of his tail, he'll smash the boat 

and send us all to eternity. 

On the 31 St of this month, of this year, 

put The Amendment up for a vote. 

Whalers? 

That's what he said. 

The man's never been near a whale ship in his life. 

Withdraw radical support. 

Force him to abandon this scheme, whatever he's up to. 

He drags his feet about everything, Lincoln... 

Why this urgency? 

We got it through The Senate without difficulty 

because we had the numbers. Come December, 

you'll have the same in the House. 

The amendment will be the easy work of 10 minutes. 

He's using the threat of The Amendment 

to frighten The Rebels into an immediate surrender. 

I imagine we'd rejoice to see that. 

Will you rejoice when The Southern States  have 

rejoined The Union pell-mell, as Lincoln intends them to,

 and one by one, each refuses to ratify the amendment? 

If we pass it, which we won't. 

Why are we cooperating with him? 

We all know What He's Doing and 

We all know What He'll Do. 

We can't offer up abolition's best legal prayer 

to his games and tricks. 

He said he'd welcome the South back 

with all its slaves in chains. 

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens :

Three years ago he said that, to calm the border states. 

I don't. You said 'We all know what he'll do.' 

I don't know. 

You know he isn't to be trusted. 

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens :

Trust? Oh. I'm sorry, I was under the misapprehension 

that your chosen profession was Politics. 

I never trusted The President, 

never trusted anyone, 

but hasn't he surprised you? 

No, Mr Stevens, he hasn't. 

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens :

Nothing surprises you, Asa, therefore 

nothing about you is surprising -- 

Perhaps that is why your constituents 

did not re-elect you to the coming term. 

It's late. I'm old. I'm going home. 

Lincoln, The Inveterate Dawdler. 

Lincoln, The Southerner. 

Lincoln, The Capitulating Compromiser, Our Adversary, 

and Leader of the godforsaken Republican party. Our party.

Abraham Lincoln has asked us to work with him to

 accomplish The Death of Slavery in America -- 

Retain, even in opposition

Your Capacity for Astonishment.