Foner

The movement claim that the post-Civil-War United States operates under continuing wartime sovereignty — because no formal peace treaty ended the war — is unsupported

The claim that the Civil War never formally ended — no peace treaty, therefore continuing wartime sovereignty over the conquered South — misreads the legal effect of the war's conclusion. The 1861-65 conflict was a constitutionally-suppressed insurrection, not a war between sovereigns. The treaty-of-peace convention applies to wars between separate sovereigns; it does not apply here, and never has.