But they were quite aware that a war was a very likely outcome of their actions, including possible trials for treason.

I have no idea what you're driving at. Are you assuming I said that the founders wanted just the war?

As for goals, you can tell a lot about a country by what it hopes the outcome of a war will be. The Axis powers in WWII wanted to rule the planet. The Allied powers wanted to be left alone.

However, I note that unlike the authors of the bill, you come very close to the realization that a real and desirable "peace" is not simply an absence of open conflict, and that the Third Reich's idea of "peace" didn't match America's. Graveyards are peaceful, too.