Elizabeth Jo
speaker
2,299 appearances
6 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2025
last heard 27 Mar
Elizabeth Jo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The prize court would then determine whether the ship would be claimed as a prize of war.
Now, prize law has some really wonderful terms.
The prize master sailed the ship to the prize court and would provide all of the papers found on board the captured ship.
And the lawyers involved would libel the prize.
That means asking for an investigation of all of the facts to determine whether the ship and its cargo would be forfeited.
After all the evidence was considered, the prize court would then condemn or release the prize.
Now, at this point, you might be wondering, what does prize law have to do with the Civil War being a war?
A lot, it turns out.
And that is because Lincoln chose to impose a naval blockade rather than just close the ports of the South.
that choice is significant because a naval blockade under recognized principles of international law is allowed only in wartime between two enemy nations.
Well, that was a problem for Lincoln, right?
Because Lincoln's position was that the Confederacy was engaged in insurrection, not a war.
the Confederacy was engaged in a war with the United States, well, then other nations might recognize the South as a sovereign nation.
But if this was not a true war, then the blockade was illegal.
You see the problem?
Yeah, it's tricky.
Right.
So if all of the ships seized during the blockade were unlawfully taken, then the Union might be forced to pay huge sums in compensation.
But most importantly, if Lincoln did not have the authority to issue a blockade, then he lacked the authority to call up troops, to direct the Treasury to pay for the Union effort, and even to issue the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
All of these were acts issued under Lincoln's constitutional war authority.
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