http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1862/ U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, presented by The Oyez Project (www.oyez.org) en-us <p>Did Lincoln act within his presidential powers defined by Article II when he ordered the seizures absent a declaration of war?</p><p>The President had the power to act. A state of civil war existed de facto after the firing on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) and the Supreme Court would take this fact into account. Though neither Congress nor the President can declare war against a state of the Union, when states waged war against the United States government, the President was "bound to meet it in the shape it presented itself,without waiting for Congress to baptize it with a name."</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1862/1862_0/