General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ...and then a man rode through the lines bearing a white flag. [View all]malthaussen
(17,184 posts)It's interesting, isn't it? I'm a pretty hard-line Unionist, myself, although I have some rather idiosyncratic opinions about much of that period that I won't burden you with. Yet all-in-all I think Lincoln had the right idea: With Malice Towards None is the kind of ideal I can get behind. But it seems that the war (or its underlying causes, which is more to the point) left sufficient malice for many. There has been a lot of South-bashing in this thread, and complaints that the South hasn't "gotten over" the war. But I wonder how many in the North have also not gotten over it, in that they continue to wish that the CSA had been crushed even harder than they were, and that Jeff Davis should have decorated a gallows? Ultimately, though, isn't it interesting that Lincoln is the one who was a casualty of war, and Davis died of natural causes? What does that tell us about those who have no malice in their hearts?
-- Mal