Editor, Gazette-Journal:

To those who would attempt to exact retribution from the signers of the secession petitions that appeared on the White House website, may I please offer a quote from the eminent civil war historian, Shelby Foote:

"Secession or rebellion as the Jacobeans preferred to call it, might be treason. But no court has ever said so—or never would say so—no matter what the opinion the radicals had on the matter."

The question might be posed, can this country be considered free if secession is denied? The argument that the civil war resolved the matter is no argument at all as it was not reason but brute force that settled the matter.

Andrew Maggard

Port Haywood, Va.
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