In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would "have no lawful right" to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a proclamation intended to free all slaves throughout the Confederate states. When critics challenged the constitutional soundness of the act, Lincoln asserted that he was endowed "with the law of war in time of war." In Act of Justice, Burrus M. Carnahan contends Lincoln was no reluctant emancipator; he wrote a truly radical document that treated Confederate slaves as an oppressed people rather than merely as enemy property. In this respect, Lincoln's proclamation anticipated the intellectual warfare tactics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

About the Author
Burrus M. Carnahan is a professorial lecturer at George Washington University Law School. He is also a foreign affairs officer in the U.S. Department of State.


Book Information
ISBN 9780813124636
Author Burrus M. Carnahan
Format Hardback
Page Count 212
Imprint The University Press of Kentucky
Publisher The University Press of Kentucky