No. 343 of 365
Liberal myth-busting:
If a liberal ever tries to justify government intrusion using the argumentum reductio ad slaveram — that, after all, it took federal government action (the Emancipation Proclamation) to free the slaves — remind him of what he never learned in school: the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free a single slave; it had no legal standing; and it didn't even extend to areas under Union control. It was a neat, diplomatic-rhetorical dodge to prevent foreign powers from recognizing the South (as it was no longer a war over Southern independence, which was diplomatically justifiable, but presumably a war over slavery, which was not). What ended slavery was two things liberals don't often like — the United States Army and a strict construction of the Constitution, enacting change through an approved constitutional amendment — not through judicial fiat or Obamaland czars or executive orders without true legal standing.
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