Not a single Confederate was convicted of treason
The South Was Right!
A recent letter to the editor maligns the patriotism of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization by questioning one of several historical flags flown at the organization’s headquarters in an inferior position to the United States flag, which is properly displayed in the position of honor.
The writer falsely asserts that the Confederacy’s actions were traitorous, and that secession was dedicated to the dissolution of the United States for the express purpose of preserving chattel slavery. Such an assertion belies the inconvenient truth that chattel slavery was sanctioned by the United States Constitution from its ratification on June 21, 1788, until the ratification of the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865, far longer than the four years the Confederacy existed.
Moreover, President Abraham Lincoln, in his inaugural address of March 4, 1861, advanced his support for a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited Congress from ever abolishing or interfering with chattel slavery.
The seceding states never sought dissolution of the United States but rather wished to exercise their reserved right to peacefully exit the voluntary compact they entered.
Not a single Confederate, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee, was convicted of treason, in large part due to the unsettled constitutional questions as to whether one’s citizenship and loyalty was to one’s native state or to a monolithic Union. Trying Jefferson Davis for treason would have raised questions about the legality of secession and the…