Craig,

You are correct about wartime acts; however it is my understanding that Lincoln did not have the power to actually free slaves anywhere, North, South, East, or West. I am sure you fully know that the EP freed not a single slave or abolished slavery. I do not have the exact date at my fingertips, but I am sure it was the 13th amendment that freed the slaves and abolished slavery. What is really surprising I read sometime ago that President Bush passed a human trafficking act which is nothing more than a slave act, correct?

I have often wondered how anyone can think Lincoln had the power to free a slave or for that matter makes any law in the South when it was a separate country. His only means of enforcing anything is the point of a bayonet.

Now if he had all of this power in the South, and was willing to wage war against the population, surely he had the same power in the North.

GP