Replies

My great-granfather was a Confederate, thus I am a descendent an American traitor; no different than my hero John Kerry."

Not at all, per the constitutional definition of Article III, Section 3:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The secession of the southern states was lawful; or else the secession and following U.S. statehood of West Virginia from the Confederate state of Virginia was a constitutional violation as well, making Lincoln a perjurer unfit to hold his office, per Article IV,Section 3:

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

Both de facto and de jure, Virginia was not a state of the United States following her secession- or else West Virginia is not lawfully a state, and all laws and several constitutional amendments passed since her unlawful ascension to statehood voted on by congressional representatives from that state are void, null and invalid.

I don't think the federal government wanted to go there.... .

Turn that around. If southern acts if unilateral secession were legal then why was the secession of part of Virginia illegal? What act of the confederate or the Virginia constitutions prevented it?

I don't think the federal government wanted to go there....

It did actually. Virginia v West Virginia was a post rebellion Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court gave de fact recognition of the legitimacy of West Virginia by hearing the case.