From Margaret Rutherford's 'A True Estimate of Abraham Lincoln'...
...on violations of the Constitution.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. First of all coercion in 1861, which was a violation of Article 4. And of course that's where Lincoln tried to coerce the South into fighting and of course into surrendering to him basically.
2. Lincoln violated the Constitution when he violated the Laws of Neutrality, which was the Trent Affair, Article 6, Clause 2, which was a violation of international law. Now if you don't know what the Trent Affair was, it is very interesting because the Confederate Government had sent some representatives to England to present our cause there before the English Parliament and our Confederate men were on an English ship named the Trent. And the United States government came and took the Confederate men off a British ship and imprisoned them. You say, well, what's so bad about that, because of the laws of Neutrality, and remember the War of 1812 was fought over the same issue because the English was doing that to our citizens. And what happened, the North was humiliated in this. Those men had to be released and William Seward had to write an apology to the English government because the English government would not even negotiate. They said you will either release those men or there is going to be war between you and England as well as the South and England. So, Lincoln when he violated the Constitution in this area, by the way, do you know what he did for the Captain who arrested those men and took them off of the English Ship? He gave him a gold medal. Didn't matter to him that he violated the Constitution. (sounds a lot like what he did with Turchin....added by Woogs)
3. He suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2.
4. He declared war without the consent of Congress in 1861, which is a violation of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 and 12.
5. He made West Virginia a State in violation of Article 4, Section 3, Clause 1. He just separated Virginia and made West Virginia a State all by himself.
6. He denied the freedom of speech in the Valandeham Imprisonment, which was a violation of the first Amendment.
7. He blockaded Ports of the States that were held by the Federal government to still be in the Union. You don't block your own Ports.
8. The Liberty of the Press was taken away - that is a violation of the First Amendment.
9. Violation of the Fugitive slave law, which was violation of Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3.
