The Ten Worst American Traitors

www.mandatory.com ^ | 6/21/12 | Tim Currie

[JCBreckenridge]

If you’re pinning the blame on the confederates for ‘stuffing up the union with the 14th amendment’, let’s take a look at that:

1.Connecticut (June 25, 1866)
2.New Hampshire (July 6, 1866)
3.Tennessee (July 19, 1866)
4.New Jersey (September 11, 1866)*
5.Oregon (September 19, 1866)
6.Vermont (October 30, 1866)
7.Ohio (January 4, 1867)*
8.New York (January 10, 1867)
9.Kansas (January 11, 1867)
10.Illinois (January 15, 1867)
11.West Virginia (January 16, 1867)
12.Michigan (January 16, 1867)
13.Minnesota (January 16, 1867)
14.Maine (January 19, 1867)
15.Nevada (January 22, 1867)
16.Indiana (January 23, 1867)
17.Missouri (January 25, 1867)
18.Rhode Island (February 7, 1867)
19.Wisconsin (February 7, 1867)
20.Pennsylvania (February 12, 1867)
21.Massachusetts (March 20, 1867)
22.Nebraska (June 15, 1867)
23.Iowa (March 16, 1868)

That’s 22/27 union states that voted for it. Only one of the southern states initially voted for it, Tennessee.

The rest were imposed through reconstruction. The only union states opposed were California, Ohio, New Jersey, Kentucky and Oregon.

So if you have anyone to blame for the 14th, point your fingers at the 22 union states that voted for it.

[hfr]

Coarse but correct.

One cannot call anyone on the Confederate side a traitor. Whether or not states had the right to secede was in 1860 an open question that was only settled by force of arms. On the face of it the states retained their sovereignty, and as the creators of the union, they supposed they had the right to dissolve the union.

To call Lee, Davis, or any others by the name of traitor is a complete error. They were on the loosing side of an open question, that is all.

On the other hand, one can make a very strong case that Lincoln's usurpation of authority beyond that granted in the Constitution was in fact itself treason against the Constitution. Not only his disregard for the Constitution, but also his use of the military to settle a political question. And further there are issues such as his illegal abrogation of habeus corpus and other laws. And for that matter it wasn't Lincoln alone, it was the entire Republican party behind him.

So in no reasonable way can Lee be considered a traitor.

[Ax]

This list is incomplete without Ronald W. Pelton, the weasel that sold highly classified document from NSA to the KGB for chump change. He wallows in federal custody to this day.

[JCBreckenridge]

If the rump represents the whole then the Confederacy is the true representative of the United States.

Virginia as a whole voted to leave. That absolves Lee of traitorious conduct, for he did not vote to secede.

Also, why Lee over my namesake? Breckinridge ran for the presidency, supporting the slaveowners, left Kentucky to serve in the confederacy.

The only reason Lee is considered a traitor is because he was a damn good officer who actually whupped the Union.

[Lets Roll NOW]

If Lee was a traitor why was he offered command of the Union Army? He was the best General in the United States and both sides wanted him.

[Sans-Culotte]

Then why did R.E. Lee say this on 2 October 1965 after the war was over???

1.) By the end of the war, there was no doubt that the states were not sovereign and were merely part of the Federal Government. Before the war, men like Lee felt that a State was a country. The Civil War changed all that. I'm not defending Lee's decision, nor am I saying he made the correct decision. I'm merely saying that I do not think he was a traitor in that he saw Virginia as the country to which he was loyal. After the war, he found out that Virginia wasn't diddly anymore.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Some other really important ones that were missed:

William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, U.S. National Security Agency cryptologists who defected to the Soviet Union in 1960.

John Anthony Walker, Jr. During his time as a Soviet spy, Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than one million encrypted US Navy messages, organizing a spy operation that The New York Times reported in 1987 “is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history.”

I absolutely agree about the Rosenbergs, who deserved to fry.

[Sans-Culotte]

The war was over when Booth came along ~

Who cares if a war was still on? He killed a sitting president.

Besides, the war was officially still on. Joseph E. Johnston did not surrender his army until after Lincoln's assassination.

[moonshot925]

We should always remember the crimes of the treasonous Confederacy.

13,000 prisoners killed at Andersonville. It was deliberately overcrowded so that the prisoners would die from malnutrition, exposure, and disease.

[Sans-Culotte]

13,000 prisoners killed at Andersonville. It was deliberately overcrowded so that the prisoners would die from malnutrition, exposure, and disease.

That falls under the heading of "war crimes". Andersonville would have been a war crime in any war.

[Terry Mross]

England considered all of the Founding Fathers traitors. They overturned a government.

The Confederates didn’t try to overturn the “union” government. Therefore, Lee, Davis et al were not traitors.

I consider every member of the supreme court and every person in congress traitors for allowing a non natural born citizen to become president.

[dragnet2]

During WWII he received a top secret briefing about how the Japanese were setting their depth charges too shallow to sink our submarines. So he has a press conference and brags about it, the Japanese adjust their settings and we lost at least 10 submarines and their crews.

Too bad they put a fool in charge.

I would have broadcasted shallow depth charges were causing great loses to our submarine fleet.

[cgchief]

On the matter of Robert E. Lee, he was the best on either side of the battle line and I believe commanded the most respect of any of the military leaders.

I read a multi-volume biography where he said that he believed succession was unconstitutional and slavery was immoral, but was unable to fight against the state where he was born and raised.

Regardless, of where you fall on the matter of the civil war, Robert E. Lee, in my opinion, always has been and always will be a great American.

[cgchief]

On the matter of Robert E. Lee, he was the best on either side of the battle line and I believe commanded the most respect of any of the military leaders.

I read a multi-volume biography where he said that he believed succession was unconstitutional and slavery was immoral, but was unable to fight against the state where he was born and raised.

Regardless, of where you fall on the matter of the civil war, Robert E. Lee, in my opinion, always has been and always will be a great American.

[moonshot925]

“England considered all of the Founding Fathers traitors. They overturned a government.”

The founding father rebelled because they didn’t like the Molasses Act, Sugar Act, Currency Act and Stamp Act.

I think we all agree with them.

Those taxes were unfair.

[central_va]

Any honest and learned individual who can see through neo-confederate nonsense can understand the obvious; Lee was a traitor.

You are an idiot. Freepers really log into Free Republic to bad mouth one of the greatest Americans who ever lived? RE Lee?

[central_va]

Moonbat, this is what President Eisenhower said about R E Lee to an idiot just like you, some douche named Dr. Scott.

August 9, 1960

Dear Dr. Scott:

Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War Between the States the issue of Secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.

General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.

From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee's caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.

Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.

Sincerely,

Dwight D. Eisenhower

[onona]

me too. what crap

[FreeAtlanta]

I bet, a lot of conservatives in the North and South would go the route of States Rights, knowing what we now know. Lee and the South were just visionaries.

[Repeat Offender]

Some people will always worship a central government, even beyond the point when it invades their home, and murders their family and neighbors over political discourse.

They make the best neighborhood snitches and probably donate their time to #attackwatch and flag@whitehouse.gov.

The funniest thing, the last area to officially renounce the Confederacy and rejoin the Union? TOWN LINE, NEW YORK in 1946