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Originally Posted by 33girl
War of 1812.
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But since we weren't British subjects at tha point, it wasn't treason.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Low C Sharp
No, the difference is that Americans are not claiming, right now, to be loyal citizens of the British Crown who happen to also honor treason against Great Britain. I don't revere Great Britain at all, so there's no hypocrisy in honoring treason against it. But if you claim to be a loyal United States citizen, it is hypocritical to honor anti-US treason.
Further, all treason is not created equal. I believe that having a hereditary monarch at the head of a government is an inherently unjust and evil system. Treason against a monarchy to launch a democracy can be a high moral action. Treason against a democracy because you lost an election cannot be. There is no irony in distinguishing the two, or finding one more honorable than the other.
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A very subjective (and perhaps not quite historically accurate*) way to view it -- which is fine as long as as you recognize that there other valid subjective ways to view it.
* Our revolution was not necessarily against monarchy
per se, but against a government (monarchy and parliament) in which we had no representation, prompting us to choose a truer democracy. As for the civil war, it was an open question at the time whether states could choose to leave the union. The Civil War established that they cannot.
ETA: As for treason against a democracy because of losing an election, I think that's a rather gross oversimplification. I think it more accurate to say that those in the Confederacy saw themselves as rejecting a governmental arrangement that they believed didn't represent their interests -- not unlike those involved in the Revolution.
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