[WhiskeyPapa]

After secession the Confederacy never attempted to invade the Union, never attempted to overthrow Lincoln or anyone else.

Did you ever see the "Gore Vidal Lincoln" miniseries with Sam Waterston as Lincoln?

There's a scene where a distracted Lincoln is at the war department telegraph office on an evening in July 1863.

The clerk says, "there is a new message from General Meade, Mr. President." Lincoln asks him to read it.

The message says something like, "With God's help, we have driven the enemy from our soil," meaning back into Virginia and across the Potomac.

Lincoln kicks the door and says, "My God! When will they realize it is ALL our soil!"

And no matter how you try and slice it, the attempt by the secessionists to renounce the federal government and haul down Old Glory in the so-called seceded states was a heinous, unlawful and unwarrented revolution against the lawful government. And they were laid low for attempting it.

Long live the United States.

Walt

[D J White]

Walt, is it at all possible for the Federal Government to do something unconstitutional or is the Federal government the sole rightful judge of the powers delegated to it? If the President were to say that we will retire the Federal Government's debt by selling all the people in, say, the State of Maine into slavery and confiscating their property and selling that, if the Supreme Court said it was okay with them, does Maine have any recourse, or do they simply have to lay back and take it for the good of the Union?

Just curious.

D J White