As if they would rule any other way. I think secession was fool hardy and wrong for several reasons. I don’t think it was illegal at the time. We will never know whether Lincoln would have called up troops if Fort Sumter had not been fired upon. Once that happened the U.S. government was justified in going to war against the Confederacy.
My point is that those who fought for the Confederacy were not traitors. Even if after the war the secession was found to be illegal when they enlisted in the Confederate military they believed they were fighting on behalf of a separate country and not making war on their own nation.
It wouldn't make any sense to rule any other way.
I don’t think it was illegal at the time.
So you believe the Founding Fathers would agree to a system where states can walk out at will, without discussion, taking every bit of federal property they could get their hands on without compensation, and walk away from their responsibility for their share of national debt and from national commitments? I could not design a method for leaving more likely to leave acrimony and hard-feelings if I tried, and I cannot believe men like Madison and Washington and Hamilton would purposely do so as well.
We will never know whether Lincoln would have called up troops if Fort Sumter had not been fired upon.
Lincoln had not, while Davis called up 75,000 troops prior to beginning the war at Sumter. Which side had the more hostile intentions?
My point is that those who fought for the Confederacy were not traitors.
One can respect them for their fight while not being under any illusions on their actions. They were, by the definition given in Article III, traitors.
Even if after the war the secession was found to be illegal when they enlisted in the Confederate military they believed they were fighting on behalf of a separate country and not making war on their own nation.
True. But the men fighting the revolutionary war felt that they were also fighting for a country, and I doubt that the British would have been as generous in victory as the North was.