The Absurd GOP

[Rev. Rye]

The areas in rebellion, which included the places where the vast majority of America's slaves lived. Or does only freeing 89% of the slaves (according to data from the 1860 Census) not count as sweeping action? It wasn't really sweeping enough, but the point is freeing 3.5 million slaves sounds like the sort of sweeping action you treat as unprecedented.

Seeing as the South was generally treated as a conquered nation, it's different. That was the Reconstruction Era. Southern states, and not even all, didn't even have members in the US congress until the 40th US Congress.

The South was a conquered nation? Not in 1862.