Doug Miller wrote in
:

woodchucker wrote in
news:wqqdnT3c1qu9xyTLnZ2dnUU7- :


Well John, not everyone that takes up arms is a traitor.

Everyone who takes up arms against his own country is a traitor.

Some were called patriots in the American Revolution.

Not by both sides, they weren't. The British called them traitors, and
hanged them. Even some of the colonists called them traitors. We call
them patriots now only because the revolution succeeded.

Exactly so. Someone who takes up arms against his government
is a traitor until he succeeds in replacing that government.
Robert E Lee and his fellow Southerners were called patriots,
but because they didn't succeed in replacing the government
they ended up treated as traitors.

John

On 2/9/2016 3:59 PM, John McCoy wrote:

Robert E Lee and his fellow Southerners were called
patriots, but because they didn't succeed in replacing
the government they ended up treated as traitors.

If they had ended up treated as traitors, they would have
been charged, tried, sentenced, and executed or imprisoned
for life. That's not what happened.

Just Wondering wrote in news:_3Duy.156$zm6.48
@fx20.iad:

On 2/9/2016 3:59 PM, John McCoy wrote:

Robert E Lee and his fellow Southerners were called
patriots, but because they didn't succeed in replacing
the government they ended up treated as traitors.

If they had ended up treated as traitors, they would have
been charged, tried, sentenced, and executed or imprisoned
for life. That's not what happened.

Au contraire, for many of them it was what happened. Those
who were still imprisoned (i.e. not dead) were pardoned by
President Johnson in 1868.

Note that specific to Lee, his property was confiscated
(without any 4th amendment compensation, either). Just for
spite the US Army used the grounds around his house as a
graveyard, to ensure he would not try to recover it after
the war.

John