The U.S.Supreme Court, according to the Prize Cases decided on in December 1862, 

ruled: "Congress cannot declare war against a state or any number of states 

by virtue of any clause in the Constitution. The President has no power to 

initiate or declare war against a foreign nation or a domestic state. Several 

of these states have combined to form a new Confederacy, claiming to be 

acknowledged by the world as a Sovereign state. Their right to do so is 

now being decided by wager of Battle."

The Stars and Stripes was the symbol of a regime that made 

arbitrary arrests, suspended habeas corpus, and curtailed 

freedom of speech, 

press, and assembly. The number of political prisoners during the 

Civil War era has been estimated to be as high as 38,000. The 

Legislature of Maryland was overthrown by Lincoln's military. 

The Chicago Times was among hundreds of Northern 

newspapers suppressed for expressing "incorrect views." 

As late as the middle of 1864, Lincoln was ordering his military 

to "arrest and imprison the editors, proprietors and publishers 

of the New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce."