SUMNER CHARLES Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed recipie

Sale 2276 - Lot 222

Price Realized: $ 1,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

LINCOLN'S VIEW ON APPROPRIATION OF ENEMY PROPERTY SUMNER, CHARLES. Autograph Letter Signed, to an unnamed recipient ("My dear Sir"), discussing the legal justification for the appropriation of enemy property in wartime and pointing out that the President holds that the Constitution imposes limits upon such appropriation. 3 1/2 pages, 8vo, written on a single folded sheet; minor scattered smudges to text. (AKF) "Senate Chamber" [Washington], 9 December 1862

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"All the property of public enemies, whether personal or not, should be proceeded against under the Jura Belli. There is no limitation in the Constitution; only in the principles of expediency & practice. . . .
". . . I doubt if an informer, who has merely spied out the existence of certain p'pty, should be put on the same footing of compensation with captors . . . .
"I doubt also the expediency of a rule of evidence . . . as that you propose . . . .
"The Presid't, you will remember, declined to adopt our view, that the land can be proceeded against without limitation in the Constitution."