General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are you glad that John Brown was hanged? [View all]Uncle Joe
(58,272 posts)First being the definition of the war, the Confederate State Governments "elected" to leave the union, that blurred the line between "treason" and "war."
Robert E. Lee was faced with a "Sophie's Choice" take up Lincoln's offer to command the Union Army against his own family, friends, neighbors and State or to defend Virginia; of which Lee's family played historical roles and an entity much older than the U.S.
John Brown was still an American citizen when he took up arms and murdered those people. Republicans or Conservatives might view murderers of abortion doctors in the same light as John Brown.
Another reason as to why I believe they didn't execute Lee or the other Confederate leaders is because after fours years of war and 600,000 - 700,000 total deaths, the U.S. wanted the fighting and dying to end. Robert E. Lee was extremely popular in the South even after defeat.
Per Lincoln's second inaugural address, saving the nation for the long term was his preeminent concern.
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."