In an interview concerning Confederate Heritage Month, I saw a Georgia state representative quoted as saying that Southern heritage shouldn’t be honored because the Confederates “fought to overthrow” the United States government.
Again, I will turn to the Confederate Catechism by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, as it answers the question: Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?
No, the South fought to establish its own government. Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent.
The United States existed when there were only thirteen States, and it would have existed when there were twenty States left. The charge brought by Lincoln that the aim of the Southerners was to overthrow the government was no more true than if King George III had said that the secession of the American colonies from Great Britain had in view the destruction of the British government.
The government of Great Britain was not destroyed by the success of the American States in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States have been destroyed if the Southern States had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861-1865.