ABSTRACT
Insurrection against a government may or may not culminate in an organized rebellion, but a civil war always begins by insurrection against the lawful authority of the government. A civil war is never solemnly declared; it becomes such by its accidents—the number, power, and organization of the persons who originate and carry it on. As a civil war is never publicly proclaimed, eo nomine against insurgents, its actual existence is a fact in our domestic history which the Court is bound to notice and to know. By the Constitution, Congress alone has the power to declare a national or foreign war. It cannot declare war against a State, by virtue of any clause in the Constitution. The Constitution confers on the President the whole Executive power. He is Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States.
