Loss of statehood.

With due respect to letter-writer Keith D. Ashley, in his criticism of the critique of The Real Lincoln, he missed almost the entire point regarding North America's Whatchamacallit War of 1861-65.

The United States of America is not a nation, not a state. That's right! All the longstanding but mistaken political correctness lingo notwithstanding, the USA is only a "union" or "association" or "alliance" of states--that and absolutely nothing more. (Look at the name of it.)

Just like membership in any other club, union, association, or alliance, continuing membership in the group depends on both of the parties to it, equally, and not just one. The government of the United States decides what states may or may not join as members, and likewise, each state decides what affiliations it may or may not want to have.

Which states lost the Civil War? The Southern states? No. That war was lost by all of the states in that what was lost was statehood itself. What Mr. Ashley so simplistically extolled as the preserving of the union actually turned out to be a total surrender of the sovereignty of the former states.

RICHARD WARD

Greenfield, Tennessee

Send your letters to: THE NEW AMERICAN, P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54912. Or e-mail: [e-mail]. Due to volume received, not all letters can be answered. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.