Well said!

For those who want to argue that Confederates weren't traitors, but were Americans, too, here's the choice I point out: If they were Americans, they were by definition traitors for knowingly and willfully taking up arms against the United States; and if they were not Americans, they were people of a foreign nation that declared war upon America. So which is it? They hem and haw about, "well, the definition of treason was different then!" Um, not so much.

That, and you're absolutely right that our schools don't teach the reason for the Civil War - growing up in Mississippi, we were told it was all about "states rights"...and I never knew any differently until the advent of the internet and the first time I saw Mississippi's Articles of Secession.

Great article!