Maitland, I'm confused.  You say Lee say secession was wrong. Are you
making a distinction between "wrong" and illegal? Anne

Virginia did not wish to secede; R.E. Lee even voiced his opinion that it
>was the wrong thing to do.  Only after Lincoln called for troops to invade
>the South, did the high South vote to withdraw, and even then, there were
>wishes that the situation could be settled peacefully, as witness by the
>Southern delegation that went to Washington, but were refused to be seen.
>Yes, negoations could have helped, if the North would have sat down at the
>table and talked.
>
>I'm sorry to see PC and accepted 'victors' writings being accepted as
>fact.  Many leaders of the South would not have sided with the
>Confederacy, including R.E. Lee, if secession had not been legal, and they
>said so.  Virginia reserved the right to withdraw from the union in it's
>approving document of the constitution, and was accepted by the union as
>such.  Action on one's reserved rights in an legal document accepted by
>all concerned, can hardly be called illegal.

Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org

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