ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Nock's thesis by examining the central constitutional issue of the war: was the Union Army's invasion of the Confederacy a lawful act. This will be done primarily by analyzing the legal arguments made by President Abraham Lincoln in support of the invasion and against the Confederate secession. In the context of a legal analysis of state secession, it was the Union's invasion of Virginia that is significant, and not the Confederacy's firing on Fort Sumter a month earlier. The chapter considers the Special Message's legal arguments against secession, then the First Inaugural's political arguments against secession. While Lincoln the lawyer made a variety of legal arguments against secession, Lincoln the politician made two main political arguments against secession. The Amendment goes on to make apparent reference to the Civil War by prohibiting any military officer, who, having previously sworn to support the Constitution, engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against it, from serving as a federal official.
