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UNDER THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

BY

WILLIAM WHITING.

TENTH EDITION.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by

WILLIAM WHITING,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

3

PRINTED BY

GEO. C. RAND AND AVERY,

58397

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

WAR POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT, AND LEGISLATIVE POW. ERS OF CONGRESS, IN RELATION TO REBELLION, TREASON, AND SLAVERY.

THE following pages were not originally intended for publication, but were written by the author for his private use. He has printed them at the request of a few friends, to whom the opinions therein expressed had been communicated; and he is not unaware of several errors of the press, and of some inaccuracies of expres sion, which, in one or two instances, at least, modify the sense of the statements intended to be made. The work having been printed, such errors can conveniently be corrected only in the "errata." This publication was principally written in the spring of 1862, the chapter on the operation of the Confiscation Act of July 17th, 1862, having been subsequently added. Since that time President Lincoln has issued his Emancipation Proclamation, and several military orders, operating in the Free States, under which questions have arisen of the gravest importance. The views of the author on these subjects have been expressed in several recent public addresses; and, if circumstances permit, these subjects may be discussed in a future addition to this pamphlet.

To prevent misunderstanding, the learned reader is requested to observe the distinction between emancipating or confiscating slaves, and abolishing the laws which sustain slavery in the Slave

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