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It is tucked under the whig theory section, which could be better. What's often pointed to is the first national banks, the first circulating federal paper money, the first income tax, and creating in effect (or to a greater degree) a nationwide market for good and services (due to the war). Alanscottwalker (talk) 00:08, 18 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The last couple of paragraphs of Historical reputation (Thanksgiving and Yosemite) should be in the presidential sections rather than here - anyone have thoughts on where specifically to put them? Nikkimaria (talk) 00:09, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, they both go under "First term". I don't see a subsection in which to put either of them. One or two new subsections may have to be created. Bruce leverett (talk) 01:57, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The general view is that Lincoln announced the holiday to take place just after the Gettysburg speech in November and I've moved the edit there. For Yosemite, the timing is just after the Overland Campaign which seemed the best place to move it. Maybe it looks better in the new location in the article. ErnestKrause (talk) 02:56, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The power of the federal government to end slavery
The way it was is correct. The version I reverted is confused. The 3/5 Compromise was one of five provisions in the original Constitution that mentioned slavery (without using the word). See Slavery and the United States Constitution. A constitutional amendment to end slavery could have been enacted from day one. To speak of the federal government's lack of the power to end slavery refers to doing so without a constitutional amendment -- for Congress or the president or the courts to do so. The original Constitution did not explicitly state that the federal government could not end slavery, but it was universally understood to imply that. Advocates of slavery and advocates of abolition (and Abraham Lincoln) agreed about that. That's why William Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." The understanding that slavery was left up to the states wasn't "inscribed" into the Constitution by any particular clause, including the 3/5 Compromise. Maurice Magnus (talk) 16:17, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I refer to the sentence "His position on the constitutional justification of the Civil War was founded on the argument that the Constitution is essentially a contract among the states, which exists in perpetuity unless all parties agree to abrogate it." Another editor changed "all parties" to "the participating parties." Both are correct, so there was no need for the edit. Actually, most correct would be "all participating parties," and I will make that edit. The issue here is Lincoln's position. In his first inaugural address, he said, "Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade, by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it---break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?"
The sentence still needs work, which I will do now. Check back shortly if you're interested.