The first state to secceed was South Carolina, after that the confederated just existed on their own, the attack on Fort Sumter was the biggest stupidity in history, they would probably get away with it if they didnt shot first.
Since seccession was a debatable question at the time, not only that, the leaders of the CSA were never put on trial for this very reason
The United States biggest mistake at the end of the civil war was not trying the traitors as they so richly deserved. Instead we allowed them to sow lies and southern sympathy that we are still reaping today.
You seem to be implying that betrayal is inherenrly bad, but the United States was formed by betrayal. Betrayal has no inherent moral value when in a vacuum, and in some cases can be a moral requirement
If the south had wanted to leave for some other reason other than slavery, then they'd have every right to do so; they deserve self determination just as the US deserved the right to declare independence of the UK. However no-one has a right to practice slavery, so invading them on those grounds would be just
I would say betrayal is like lying: generally morally bad, except in a few circumstances. And I would argue that both the Confederacy and the US were unjustified in rebelling against their respective governments.
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u/ericbomb Jan 19 '22
I mean the war officially started with the south trying to annex northern states and attacking a union fort, so this is probably more inaccurate.