Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
NO TRIALS FOR TRAITORS?
NO TRIALS FOR TRAITORS?
Sunday, January 26, 2020
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
The lack of any trial after the Civil War of any the Confederate States of America’s leaders like Jefferson Davis, its president or Alexander Hamilton Stephens, vice president, seems to suggest the palpable presence of United States of America’s unease, about the certainty of treason convictions, at trial, or on appeal.
Such “uncertainty” implies that the Confederates may have been legally correct in seceding, based on their proslavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, given the lack of later condign punishment for the war. It is claimed by many people, after all, that Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, had written in the “Declaration of Independence”, these exculpatory words:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.****
Whether Thomas Jefferson, actually wrote these words or not, or whether they were more likely written by our estranged Founding Father, Thomas Paine, as a few others believe, is immaterial. They were approved by the Continental Congress. They are also recognized as endemic to our nation.
The peace conference at Hampton Roads, Virginia, mentioned below, contains more little known facts of American history germane to us now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Roads_Conference