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In reply to the discussion: The South was not sufficiently punished after the war [View all]ncjustice80
(948 posts)We had those scumbag traitors by the cajones, and that fool just...let them go.
EVERY confederate officer of the rank of colonel or higher should have been hunted down, tried, and executed. All his holding seized and re-distributed to freed slaves.
ALL plantations seized, and handed over to freed slaves.
ALL civilian members of the southern parliament captured and exiled, with their property seized and re-distributed.
ALL members of the confederate army and government disenfranchised for life.
Any city that resisted, and Lincoln could unleash Sherman on them again.
A cesspool of slave-loving rascists, reconciliation with the South was a ridiculously naive idea. If Lincoln had fully committed, he could have ensured mostly African-American representatives and crushed American Apartheid; instead, he choked and failed. And now we have the mess we are in today.