'Traitor' not too strong for Confederate leaders

In Mr. Knudsen's letter in a recent Daily Herald, I first want to salute his serving as an army officer but I question his historical perspective. As an officer, he swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. What would he call 306 West Point graduates who broke their oath and waged war on the United States?

Traitor, is not too strong a word. Davis, Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, are among the 306. If slavery was not the reason, why did the 11 states that did secede all list that as the No. 1 reason? Slavery was not threaten by Lincoln's election; only the extension of it into the territories. True, the original 13th Amendment was to prevent the federal government from tampering with slavery where it existed.

The vast non slave-owning Southern whites were poor farmers who followed the lead of the "fire eaters" who believed that the lack of territorial expansion of slavery would reduce their political power. While secession was around since the founding of the country, it was always an academic and or constitutional debate as to its legality.

The firing on the American flag at Fort Sumter changed everything. What had been just talk in and out of Congress turned at that instant into an open rebellion, which Lincoln and those who flocked to the colors saw as a threat to the existence of our country. Lincoln crafted his reasoning in 264 words explaining why the war was fought. Read his Gettysburg Address.

Michael Weiser

Wheeling