philly rabbit
Verified User
What seems to be missing here though is the fact that the South had every right to secede from the Union, WHEN, they did. The Confederate president Jefferson Davis, was held for trial but the North knew if they let him into a court room, he could prove that the South had the LEGAL right to secede, so they let him go.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/slavery-during-the-civil-war.html
Legal scholars all over the north knew that there was no way Davis could have been convicted of treason in a court of law. Davis's lawyers, who were ready to volunteer on his behalf from both the north and the south would have proven that the south did not commit treason and Davis was no traitor and that Lincoln's war was illegal and unconstitutional.
So Davis never got his day in court.