should jeff davis have been hanged?

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Of the two presidents during the Civil War the proper president was executed.

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Ems, you seem to forget that secession was seen as a legal option for states prior to the war of northern aggression. New England flirted with this option several times in the early parts of the 19th century and secession was taught as a legal option at West Point. On top of that the US govt supported Texas in its' secession from Mexico as well as supported Panama in its' secession from Columbia. To claim that the govt has not accepted secession as a valid legal option or that the union is perpetual would just further perpetuate the Yankee myth of history.

As you said, the Articles of Confederation do indeed state that the Union is perpetual, but if this were true, then why were the states essentially allowed to secede from the American confederacy to form the current USA? Shouldn't the leaders of that rebellion have been hung?

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I think it's fair to say that a Unilateral Declaration of Independence is legal when the people declaring it win.

That is true and I don't debate that but just because you lose doesn't make the cause "wrong".

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With hindsight, I voted no because Lincoln would have wanted it that way. If Davis was going to be hanged then Robert E. Lee should have followed him.

Ironically I was at Fort Monroe the other day - the place where Davis was imprisoned.

They never even committed a crime in the first place. Of course you can't hang an innocent man.

And the one thing I've always wondered if Lincoln said secession was invalid and the southern states never left the union then why were they kicked out at the end of the war and then had to be readmitted to the Union? Also, why were legislators who opposed ratification of the 14th amendment conveniently "removed" from office and replaced by legislators who didn't oppose ratification, like what occurred in Oregon.