"Who Was the Traitor and Who the Patriot?" Topic

"In 1776, George Washington rebelled against the established government of his day. We remember him as a patriot, but to his king and fellow colonists loyal to the king, Washington was the traitor and Benedict Arnold was the patriot.

In 1861, pro-Union supporters defended the nation that had been created in 1776. Pro-Confederates said they were exercising the right, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, to "alter or abolish" unrepresentative and oppressive government. Wherever a Virginian placed his or her loyalty—to the rebel nation of 1776 or the new rebel nation of 1861—he or she was a patriot in the eyes of some and a traitor in the minds of others…"
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Amicalement
Armand

The traitor is the one who went to the losing side, the winner writing history.

I've never felt that the Confederates were traitors. What they did was dead WRONG, but it wasn't treason.

From the US constitution.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

That is exactly what the Confederacy did.
By the definition of the constitution all citizens of the Confederacy were guilty. Including the women.

Glup!…

Amicalement
Armand

The traitor is the one who went to the losing side, the winner writing history.

Yes … that is the bottom line …

Yes Gunfreak I agree …

Yes, insofar as only losers are declared traitors, put on trial and punished.

But those who supported their cause may still not perceive them to have been traitors. That is certainly how many people in UK see Oliver Cromwell today, though he was declared a traitor, his body exhumed and ritually mutilated after the Restoration.

And what about people who are secretly betraying their country, or the principles that underpin it, but have been fortunate not to have been detected and caught?

Who won? It is that simple.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

That is exactly what the Confederacy did.
By the definition of the constitution all citizens of the Confederacy were guilty. Including the women.

*****

Except that only applies to US citizens who did that. The Confederates believed that once they left the Union they were no longer US citizens so that would not apply to them. Which leads to the question of whether secession was legal. That question was settled on the battlefield.

Which leads to the question of whether secession was legal.

That is actually at least 2 questions: Was secession theoretically legal? Was it done in a legal way? (Which is actually a separate question for each state -- but if the answer to the first question is no, then you don't have to worry about the second one.)

Not even the British and Tories thought of Arnold as a patriot. Sincere loyalists sometimes resigned Continental commissions and accepted British ones, just as several Continental officers had to give up British half-pay.

What Arnold did was offer to sell the fortress and troops entrusted to him by one side while still wearing that side's uniform and drawing its pay. The very officers who accepted his terms despised him for offering them. No respectable family in London would meet him socially, and when he sued someone for slander in Canada, a Loyalist jury assessed his reputation as being worth two shillings. Benedict Arnold's loyalty was to Benedict Arnold only.

The states which seceded were wrong to do so--and more wrong to fire on Sumpter. But the officers who resigned commissions to remain loyal to their states look like gentlemen next to Arnold.