Confederate leaders were traitors to U.S.

This opinion is in response to a Sept. 22 letter by Mr. Harold Knudsen claiming that Confederate leaders should be honored. These men were traitors to our country and to humanity. Their reason for leaving the Union was the maintenance and extension of the immoral system of the enslaving of human beings for personal profit. He says that the Southern States rebelled for a political reason, which is true. However, the political reason is rooted in the "peculiar institution" of slavery as it was often referred to in the media and politicians of the time. He seems to suggest that slavery was only tangential to the rebellion and therefore Confederate leaders deserve honor. I must respectfully disagree.

I believe Mr. Knudsen fails to realize that a number of wrongheaded attempts to leave the Union prior to 1861 do not add up to a right for leaders of the Confederacy to do the same. Mr. Knudsen is correct that the slave states, i.e., the Southern Democrats, anticipated the loss of political power, but loss of political power was imminent because of the possible banning of the "peculiar institution" in newly constituted states and thus the malevolent institution of slavery must be acknowledged as the major impetus for the Civil War.

Citing the Jeffersonian Republican threats of secession, the Hartford Convention or tariff concerns are red herrings and give no credence or justification to the rebellion of the Confederacy. There is no honor in supporting an immoral cause whether held by an individual or a state. There was not in 1861, and there is not now.

Harry Trumfio

Arlington Heights