Definition of "rebellion" []

• Open, armed, and organized resistance to a constituted government. (noun)
• An act or a show of defiance toward an authority or established convention. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The express language of it is: 'By virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a _fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion_.'"
• "The term rebellion can never be properly applied to the conduct of a State, acting (through a convention) in its sovereign capacity."
• "States in seceding as they did, (through regular conventions,) makes the term rebellion inapplicable to their conduct."