After the war a scourge of illness and even starvation killed thousands more.
And Lincoln told the peace negotiators at Appomadix to allow a mule and a firearm to the surrendering Confederate soldiers. He allowed Jefferson Davis to flee to Cuba and Robert E. Lee to retire to his mansion in, of all places, Arlington, Virginia.
And then John Wilkes Booth and a bevy of conspirators killed Lincoln.
They did it as a conspiracy, not as a spur of the moment thing. Their aim was to kill the entire Lincoln cabinet, and they nearly accomplished their goal.
Their aim was to restart the Civil War, upend the peace agreement, and continue the killing.
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The entire south had committed treason after all. And Booth wanted, even was begging with his heinous act, to goad the north into enforcing the Constitituion and come down hard on the south. His dream was the "south would rise again" and defeat the north.
Of course this was impossible, since by now the Union Army was quite simply the strongest Army on the planet, armed with the most modern weapons and understand what would be the near downfall of mankind: total war. KInd of like today.
If any of you out there think in your wildest 2nd Amendment fantasies, that you could defeat the U.S. Army, Marines and Navy you are nuts!
The arming of the south and its ability to still betray the constitution through treason was what Booth was trying to instigate.
And he nearly accomplished his goal. Vice President Johnson had to endure an impeachment trial for continuing Lincoln's conciliatory position, deciding to not enforce the Constitution and quite frankly hang a third of the southern states traitors.
Booth quite literally enforced what many foolish Americans today call 2nd Amendment Rights, with means rebel against the United States using guns.
Donald Trump basically did the same thing yesterday. He evoked the Second Amendment and encouraged people to take up arms against their government in a flat treasonous act!
Nothing more nothing less.
I hear it all the time as an excuse for the lack of effective firearm laws in the United States. In a democracy, with plenty of peaceful ways to push your political agenda, I hear more and more we need the 2nd Amendment to defend ourselves from our government. "We need the 2nd Amendment to protect ourselves from our government". That folks is treason! Read the damn Constitution quoted above. Every time you quote your 2nd Amendment Rights in connection with resisting the legal force of the United States your are committing treason!
This is EXACTLY the same thing that John Wilkes Booth said...the same thing.
It is treason folks. And once again we pass on enforcing the Constitution because "it was a bad joke", or "he really didn't mean it" or whatever.
Fact is Trump, like Booth, was encouraging violence against the United States (have you forgotten that his target is the former First Lady of the United States and there is strong federal law that makes what he said a federal felony).
It is also treason!
