[DiogenesLamp]

So the Government has no right to seize a Confederate cannon, or a Confederate rifle, because it is not specifically listed in the powers of the Federal Government to do so in time of war. A slave was more value to the Confederate Government’s war effort than a Confederate cannon or rifle.

I've already said that slaves seized during the war have at least a reasonable argument to be made justifying it, but how many slaves were seized during the war, and how many after?

How do you legally justify any such actions after the war?

[Bull Snipe]

About 3.5 million before the war ended.

[Bull Snipe]

How many slaves were seized after the War ended?

[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp: "I've already said that slaves seized during the war have at least a reasonable argument to be made justifying it, but how many slaves were seized during the war, and how many after?
How do you legally justify any such actions after the war?"

Confederates seized freed African-Americans in Union states for return & sale in Confederate slave markets.
The Union "seized" no slaves, merely pronounced "free" any which escaped to Union lines.

All told, there were originally 3.5 million slaves in the Confederacy, another 1/2 million in Union states.
By the time of Appomattox in 1865 nearly all had already been freed as a result of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation or their own states' abolition laws.
One result was that by the time of the 13th's ratification, December 1865, only a few percent of the original four million slaves had not already been freed.

DiogenesLamp seems to suggest here that somehow those freed slaves should have been returned to bondage after Appomattox in 1865.
Seems to suggest... but refuses to come right out and say that....