The United States of America are a Federation of Sovereign States, they are not a monolithic body--like Germany after Hitler destroyed States Rights; or in the ideological sphere, like al-Quaeda. If your Thad Stevens so loved the United States of America, why did he promote sectional antagonism--the very thing that George Washington warned against on the domestic front? Loving the United States of America, meant loving the individuality of the several States; meant respecting even the things you found distasteful in your sister States. Whether or not one believes that the South over-reacted to the Lincoln election; no one can deny that there were provocations; that rights vouchsafed in the document that created that Federal Union--"the United States of America"--were being trampled on.
Perhaps you need to reexamine who was traitor and who loyalist. It depends upon how you interpret the compact, and how you rank such considerations as honor vs. wishful thinking. Many of us have strong opinions. They are not all your opinions.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site